

Ask HN: As a political candidate how would you campaign online for election? - kumarski

What tools would you use? 
What wouldn&#x27;t you do? 
How would you minimize your costs?&lt;p&gt;Are political campaigns overpriced?&lt;p&gt;I wonder if hackernews has any politician readers.
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mindcrime
I've run for public office before (Libertarian candidate for NC Lieutenant
Governor in 2008), so I have a _little_ bit of insight on this. It's probably
a bit much to write up here and now though. If I can find time I'll try to
write up a blog post on my experiences, and mix in some of what I've learned
since then.

I'll just say this though, as a TL/DR: Running a political campaign is
basically marketing. You're just marketing a person instead of a product or
service. The basic principles are the same. So anything you can read on how to
market online in an inexpensive manner, can probably be applied to a campaign.
"Guerrilla Marketing" applies to political campaigns as much as it does to
products.

If you're a techie (probably a semi reasonable assumption if you're here) I'd
say: use a cheap VPS, F/OSS software, and do the technical stuff yourself.
Maybe pay a real designer to do your website design if you don't have any
design ability. Utilize the heck out of social media. Probably most
importantly, and maybe the biggest thing I _didn 't_ do: follow the
"permission marketing" approach and start building your audience well in
advance of the election. If you're thinking of running in 2016, start planning
the campaign and start building your mailing list(s), twitter followers,
Facebook page, etc. NOW.

And don't be afraid to ask your supporters for money. If people really believe
in what you are saying, they'll contribute. And while you can run a campaign
"on the cheap", the more $$$ you have, the better in many ways. If nothing
else, because the mainstream media use "amount raised" as a proxy for how
viable your campaign is, and in deciding whether or not to report on your
campaign.

Also, what I'd do if I were going to run again (I don't currently plan to, but
never say never) would be to really study the craft of storytelling. I'd read
books on how to tell a good story, and understand the art and craft of putting
together a compelling narrative, and then try to cast as much of my campaign
as I could into the form of a narrative. Human beings seem to be somewhat hard
wired to find narrative form appealing, and I believe that good marketing in
the future will largely hinge on the ability to tell a good story.

Anyway... I'm hardly an expert (I didn't get elected after all), but there's a
few random thoughts for ya. I'll try to revisit this and write up some more
ideas and blog them later.

