Social Media Politics: Using the Internet to Get Elected: Increasing Website Traffic Series, #6

​Introduction

Not for the Faint of Heart

This book is written for Democrats that want to get elected. If you’re a Republican you can of course buy the book and read it as well, and I encourage you to. I know you need all the ideas you can get, mainly because your party has to rely on ultra-billionaires to prop it up, so bereft of ideas are you.

You’ll find ideas in this book, although most of these ideas are written for people that care about forests and rivers and the air we breath, respect women, want people to actually make a living, and don’t give a damn about giving corporate boards more government handouts.

If that kind of tone and attitude offends you, then stop reading this book and don’t buy it. Because that’s how I talk and that’s how this book’s written and it’s not for those that want to pussyfoot around. Yes, this book is not for the faint of heart, because if you’re going to invest 9 to 12 – or God forbid, 24 months – campaigning to get elected, than you damn well better have something to show for it that first Wednesday after the first Tuesday in November...and let’s not even get into the primaries!

So yes, those ideas are directed toward Democrats, not Koch-head sell-outs of the American Dream. If that rubs you the wrong way, then fuck you.

For the rest of you, get ready to get tips on using social media and content marketing to get elected. Good luck – against these bastards and their political war chests, you’ll need it.

​Chapter 1

A History of Social Media, Content Marketing, and the Internet over the Past Decade or So

If you want to know how something works you should probably go back to the first ever recorded mention of that thing and start there. For some things – figuring out why China’s economy is growing faster than ours – it takes too much time. For others – the history of the internet – it’s a bit less time-consuming.

And to take up even less time, let’s just begin, huh?

In The Beginning

Let’s not spend a whole lot of time on this. If you really want a quick crash course, just Google something like ‘history of social media’ and go to images – you’ll find it all.

For the rest of you, the first email was sent in 1971 and the first time the World Wide Web was spoken of was in 1989. That just also happened to be the same year America Online came out (AOL) and by 1994 Netscape had come along.

By 1995 Yahoo was on the scene and people were using search engines without really knowing what those were. In 1998 Google was formed and they began to figure out how to make search a viable way for people to obtain information in day-to-day life.

Social media and blogging had come along with the rise of the internet and by 1999 there were a few platforms supporting blogging and also a few social media sites. This was really just things crawling out of the ocean and onto land, however.

From In Touch Marketing

In 2004 Facebook was created, in 2005 YouTube came about, and in 2006 Twitter took flight. The three-legged social media marketing stool had been formed, although few yet were sitting upon it.

By 2008 the power of the internet was known, both for brands needing to make a product or ‘fans’ looking to break it. Politicians began using social media and content marketing to get elected. Your email address suddenly had a lot of value to a lot of different people.

In 2011 Google+ was formed and the social media landscape as we know it had largely come about. The 21st-century had started, and already most of the world had been left behind.

The Internet and Social Media Today

We know that there are roughly 7.2 billion people in the world and that 3.01 billion of them are online. More will be online soon, as 3.6 billion people around the world are using mobile phones.

When it comes to those mobile phone users, 1.6 billion are using their phones to access social media accounts. That’s an increase of 23% over 2014.

Far and away, the most internet users are in North America, 88% in fact. I’m getting all these numbers from a January 21, 2015, report on We Are Social called Digital, Social & Mobile in 2015. Simon Kemp put it together and it tells us a lot about the current playing field. Here are some things that stand out:

– It’s crowded;

– It’s multi-platform;

– It’s growing.

In 2015 marketers will spend $8.3 billion on social media advertising...you know, those annoying ads you see on Facebook and Twitter. That’s a lot of money, and many of those marketers will be involved with politics. In 2016 that number will only be higher, and in 2018 and 2020 it’ll be something we can’t even imagine. It happens fast, too. In just one minute on the internet more happens that you could possibly believe, as seen in this great image from Social Media Today:

So we’re talking 100,000 new tweets, 2 million search engine queries made, and 204 million emails sent...all in just one minute. It would take you 5 years to view all the video that’s uploaded in just one second! Kind of mind blowing, huh?

The point is...how do you go up against that? How do you go up against what I refer to as the ‘Big Boys’ of social media and marketing?

You don’t, not in any conventional way that might make sense from an historical perspective. No, instead you need to play a new game, one that involves speaking directly to as many people as you can. Social media makes that easy, and far from making an ass of yourself like most politicians do, this book will give you tips on how to pull it off so it not only aids you in winning your race, but plays a large part in bringing that win about.

​Chapter 2

Taking the Plunge, Setting Up Your Accounts

If you want to be successful on social media you’ve got to show up. Woody Allen once famously said that 70% off success was just showing up, and I think that goes doubly for politics.

This chapter will tell you how to set up your Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts so you can start sharing stuff and telling the world who you are. Hey, it’s a lot better than talking to yourself in the mirror, right?

​Setting-Up Your Twitter Account

Setting up your Twitter account is pretty darn simple, and you’ll find an explanation on their set-up page that looks like this:

Well, maybe it’s not so easy. How about we go through it together? Start off by typing www.twitter.com into Google:

You’ll get to the main Twitter homepage, which looks like this, although it will sometimes change slightly:

I’ve got that ‘sign-in’ circled, and you’ll want to click on that:

I have an account already so I get taken to the sign-in area, but you’ll probably get taken to the sign-up area, which looks like this.

The most important thing here is what you select for your username. Since you’re a public figure and a candidate that relies on name recognition, you want to use your name.

If you’re in a statewide race, this is very important, and it’s very important that you get this account early. Why? Because some of you political opposition (not necessarily your opponent or anyone on their team) will take up that name and create a fake account to hurl insults and falsities your way.

So get your own name and get it fast. And don’t go in for any of that abbreviation shit – is your name going to be abbreviated on the ballot? You’d be surprised how often your Twitter profile username will come up with your real name, either in articles or on blogs, so make sure you have them the same.

You’re unknown, right? It shouldn’t be too hard to get that name, and you can start to make it known.

Your Twitter Homepage

So this is my Twitter homepage, and we’ll use it so you can figure out how to work this social network:

Right in the center of the screen I’m seeing my main ‘feed,’ which is all the posts, or tweets in this case, from people I’m following. Sometimes images come up, sometimes just words, and sometimes links and hashtags (don’t worry, we’ll talk about this stuff). You’ll also get the profile image of the person making the tweet, so you can click on that and learn more.

There are lots of books on the basics of Twitter, and some of them might help you. You can find most