Building An Epic Online Brand: Why Politicians Need To Slay The Internet
Making speeches, attending rallies, and going on televised debates are still important for getting elected. But nowadays, political online presence management one of the most crucial elements of any successful political campaign is absolutely crushing it with a powerful online presence.
We’re talking about leveraging every digital platform – websites, social media, online ads, influencer outreach, and more – to amplify a candidate’s personal brand, engage younger voters, drive fundraising efforts, and counter negative narratives from opponents. Let’s be real, the internet is the modern-day battleground for capturing attention and shaping public opinion.
Just think about it…where do you and your friends get a lot of your day-to-day news, entertainment, and overall information? Probably on apps like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and whatever’s currently trending. That’s the same for millions of other voters across every age demographic.
So if a politician wants to reach people where they’re actually digesting content and connect with new audiences, it’s absolutely vital for them to be strategically building a killer online presence and political online presence management – both on their own branded channels and by infiltrating the broader social mediasphere.
Of course, that’s much easier said than done…
The Art of Online Presence Management
At this point, you’re probably wondering exactly what is involved in effectively managing a political candidate or elected official’s online presence and digital footprint. How do they decide what platforms and channels to prioritize? What kind of content do they create and promote? Who’s in charge of rapidly responding to opponents or critics?
Those are all awesome questions, and the answers get to the core of what “online presence management” in the political arena is all about. It requires a skilled, multi-disciplinary team working together to:
Establish Personal Brands and Digital HQs
First and foremost, serious political campaigns and public figures will invest heavily into establishing their principal’s unique personal brand and setting up a cohesive, on-brand ecosystem of digital properties and channels.
This may include:
– Revamped websites with bio info, policy positions, donation portals
– Active, verified presences on all major social media platforms
– Regular video updates, livestreams, podcast/audio content
– Campaign logos, colors, slogans, graphics, and visuals
– Email marketing lists and text messaging outreach
The general philosophy is to create a consistent, well-produced look and voice that reinforces the candidate’s background, personality, values, policy stances, and call-to-action campaigns across all digital platforms. That way, their core narrative can easily be distributed everywhere online.
Deploy Paid Digital Advertising and Influencer Campaigns
With their owned digital properties and presences all established, political teams will then move into heavily promoting that branded content through strategic digital ad buys and influencer campaigns.
Some common paid promotion tactics include:
– Targeted social media advertising (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
– YouTube pre-roll ads and OTT/CTV streaming video placements
– Search engine marketing (Google Ads) and SEO optimization
– Sponsored content integration with major digital publishers
– Influencer marketing via popular personalities and creators
By investing their often hefty advertising budgets into savvy digital marketing efforts, they’re able to amplify their intended messaging and online narratives to reach highly segmented audiences at massive scale. This levels the playing field against their competition’s online efforts.
Leverage Multimedia Storytelling
While many old-school political ads relied on voiceovers or just reusing stump speech footage, today’s online audiences demand more dynamic, engaging storytelling and multimedia content experiences.
Smart campaigns lean into creating:
– Snackable videos and graphics perfectly optimized for each social platform’s content feeds
– Visually-rich, data-driven interactives covering complex topics
– Influencer-created content that resonates with younger demographics
– Live-streaming events, behind-the-scenes footage, and candid moments
– Serialized digital video series covering the candidate’s life or key issues
By packaging their messaging into highly consumable, shareable digital content at scale, political teams are able to amplify relevance and name recognition on voters’ preferred online channels.
Rapid Response Content Operations
Of course, a huge part of winning the online political battlefield involves rapidly responding to breaking news, combating opponent attacks and misinformation, and seizing control of the online narrative during key moments.
Effective digital teams have full rapid response capabilities such as:
– Dedicated social media monitoring and listening tools
– Agile content production capabilities (creators, video teams, designers, etc.)
– Pre-drafted reactive messaging and content play banks
– The ability to quickly spin up campaign-specific websites/pages
– Partnerships with friendly online publishers and influencers
– Paid ad capabilities for instantly amplifying desired messaging
When controversial stories or opposing narratives start spreading across the internet, they’re able to flood digital channels with coordinated online response campaigns to counter misinformation head-on and realign public focus.
Online-To-Offline Activations
While digital promotion is a core focus, major political campaigns will also invest in converting their online presence into real-world activations and grassroots outreach through:
– GOTV (“get out the vote”) efforts to online supporters
– Exclusive in-person event access distributed via digital channels
– Coordination with relevant online groups and communities
– Text, email, and social outreach around voter registration, early voting, etc.
– Organizing high-production rallies centered around digital experience
By bridging the digital-to-physical worlds, campaigns are able to energize and solidify their online communities into tangible, on-the-ground local support.
The Future of Political Branding
While the tactics described above represent the current cutting edge of political online presence management, digital teams are continuously innovating new ways to tap into emerging online channels and technologies as campaigns grow more internet-centric.
For instance, you can expect virtual and augmented reality to play a much bigger role in the years ahead for hosting immersive digital rallies and events. Leveraging AI content creation and deepfake-resistant media authentication will likely become the norm. And new internet platforms like the metaverse, web3, and decentralized social apps will absolutely become future digital battlegrounds for reaching voters.
In this perpetually evolving digital arena, a thumb-stopping, Share-worthy online brand is rapidly becoming just as crucial for driving political success as knocking on doors or scoring national TV interviews. Ignoring digital channels is tantamount to online selfdemolition.
So the next time you’re evaluating candidates for office, pay close attention to how effectively they and their teams are leveraging the latest online tools, channels, and media formats to advance their public branding and narrative promotion. Because in 2024 and beyond, truly resonating online presence and savvy digital operations may just be that competitive edge that separates winners from losers when all the ballots are finally tallied.