We’re redoing Connected Councillors: a guide to using social media for local leadership. And a big part of being a local politician is campaigning.
Of course, there’s campaigning for office, but there’s also campaigning on local issues. Over the last year I’ve been gathering some examples of campaigning, but we’re looking for more! We’re looking for examples of how councillors are using social media, the web and/or open data to campaign on local issues or for election.
Do you have a great story from the recent local elections or even last year’s council elections? Did you or someone you know organise campaign workers through Facebook? Did you use Facebook Connect? Did you get messages out through Twitter? Did you remind people to vote through email lists (gathered wholly or partially online) or SMS texts?
Maybe you’ve seen or delivered a great local issues campaign that used social media to help galvanise opinion and support. Is it something related to council cuts? Something else? We’d love to hear from you if you’ve been involved in something any time over the last year.
I’m keen to hear from you! Tell your story in the comments section here or leave comments on the Connected Councillors page on social media campaigning – or just drop me a note at [email protected]
Twitter, Facebook, and an email newsletter are frequent tactics I use as an elected city councilor. I’m now running for re-election and considering ways to beef up media, and your query about campaign worker organization through Facebook sounds interesting. Creating polls and events, you mean?
I suppose polls – definitely events – like letting people know there’s some kind of campaign event, canvassing, leafleting, etc – or even using it as a way of getting people’s contact details (like Barack Obama’s heavy use of Facebook connect on his re-election campaign site). I’ve definitely heard of some use of Facebook groups in local campaigns…not as sure about pages.