How can I reach more voters? How can I ensure my voice is heard over all the other messages bombarding my audience? These are the kinds of questions lots of politicians are asking themselves this election cycle.
Why not use text messaging to engage your supporters?
SendTree is a group text messaging service that allows you to share timely
messages with your key audiences via text, email, or social media.
Group Text: A Successful Strategy for Obama
Back in 2008, Barack Obama collected a massive list of cell phone
numbers when he promised to send a text message alert notifying supporters of his top pick for vice president (Huffington
Post).
Then during the following election cycle, as voting centers began re-opening;
Obama sent a follow-up text message to this list, encouraging people to go vote. Obama
had more than 1 million supporters to notify as a result of this successful mobile
messaging campaign (Huffington Post).
According to Scott Goodstein, Obama’s social media
specialist, one big reason this strategy was the obvious choice for engaging more
voters was because of the way people respond to text messages. As Goodstein
explains:
"I see it as a way to tether your base voter to your organization… [People] may not be reading every piece of direct mail, they may not be reading every e-mail, but people are reading every single text message."
Integrate Text with Social Media
You can encourage people to opt-in and join your SendTree contact list by adding your SendTree phone number to yard signs and bumper stickers or including it in every broadcast or print advertisement. For example, you could say something like: Text “JOIN” to [SendTree Phone Number] to instantly opt-in!
Or you can take a more pro-active route and collect cell phone numbers at your next public event. Plus, you can sync up your SendTree account with your social media pages so that all messages automatically post to your Facebook and Twitter - it’s a great way to inundate your followers with relevant information.
References:
The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Oct. 2010.
Web.
