![Conversations Pic](/uploads/8/4/1/7/8417532/720064390.jpg?173)
A quick Google search, the first step for most generation Y members, helped me build this blog post. The word ‘conversation’ was (in the 14th Century) defined as ‘living together, having dealings with each other’ or the ‘manner of conducting oneself in the world’. Over time that definition has evolved to now be defined as – an informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words or oral/physical communication between persons.
The changing use of the word has followed the change in society, including what we have clearly seen with my generation - a shift in how we connect and conduct ourselves in the world. As such over the past 20 years the manner of campaigning has followed that shift and is now reflected in how we connect with the public and our constituents. Simply, my generation connects online and in social media for everyday issues and needs and keep face to face communication for the more personal connections in our life.
To connect with my generation involves the significant task of (at least temporarily) drawing us away from connecting via Social Media and turning politics and campaigns into the personal. Campaigns need to tap into our emotional and personal realms – which in turn will make the notion of my generation as being lethargic a truly outdated one. Recent examples of how engaged and how active we can be include the Kony 2012 movement and the worldwide 'Occupy' movements.
What can we do locally to engage?
As we move forward we need to focus on ‘Engagement Focused Campaigning”, put simply we first establish an ‘Engaging Supporters’ phase. This phase provides extra time to collect all the human capital likely to be of benefit to the campaign. It builds support across political and social media networks long before campaigns normally begin.
The key aspect to building a campaign is the ability to structure a conversation with supporters that builds your supporter base and spreads your campaign narrative. The following points will focus on a how to lead an insightful and emotive conversation that builds activists or informs community members on action they can take. I will also address the idea that a campaign needs to create structures for developing and absorbing leadership.
A successful conversation is best described by the acronym “ICEBREAK”. The elements are set out below.
Introduce yourself Always introduce yourself, and be friendly – even though it might seem a bit weird. At this phase of the conversation you might use the lines, I am a Community Member wanting… or simply mention that you are a Friend and Volunteer for your local candidate. This enables you to personalize the conversation and build a rapport with the person your speaking with. Connect When you start talking about the campaign, asks the constituent some open-ended questions, how has your day been? Are you enjoying your weekend? Volunteers need to personalize their pitch to their community and in some cases the constituents. Explore This is where you gauge the persons response to the campaign, or if you are campaigning for a candidate for election you need to build a connection with the voter and what they think are the most important issues in their local community, make sure you note these points down and record them for use in the campaign later. Be sure to connect with the constituent regarding the local issues, talk about what your candidate or campaign is doing to address them. | Be Open and Break it down This is where you ask the constituent if you can count on their support for the campaign or for the candidate, this is really important and it is crucial that you directly ask the voter or constituent as it places thought and gives you the ability to re-explore or revalidate the constituents important issues. Ask them to take action If they agree to vote for your candidate, or want to support your campaign – you should attempt to move the voter or supporter to join the campaign and become a activist. For example asking them if they ever thought about being apart of the campaigning. Keep it casual and friendly Pretty self-explanatory, always thank the constituent and make sure they are excited about the campaign! |
Building a campaign that structures power and decision making across a wide range of activists or campaign teams enables the campaign to be flexible and connected with your activists. This also means that the campaign managers need to be ready to give activists roles that previously where only trusted to paid employees.
For example when building a Social Media Team – A Blogger, Tweeter and Facebook volunteer could be directed about how to work and your campaign could spend money coordinating this or you could ask the 3 volunteers to develop a plan, work together and implement it, giving your activist control of the social media.
The bottom line is our campaigning needs to be broad based, it needs to harness the range of skills across the team, and it needs to devolve leadership across a range of individuals so that everyone feels involved. While it might sound complex in theory, it often turns out be completely seamless in practice.
What are your thoughts?