Is this anyway to win an election?

In 2009 it seems that every time I opened my post or email I received yet another invite to learn how Barack Obama mobilised a nation to vote for change by using social media. The man revolutionised politics in more ways than one.
So that makes it even more puzzling about the events down in Cornwall.
The Labour candidate keeps emailing me, sending me reasons to vote for them, inviting me to events in their constituency etc. Yet I live about 200 miles away, and have never met the individual. Our paths did cross over our social media experimental site – CelebrityTweeter.com (closed down now – we are building this years experimental site right now – more soon) – we had to agree to disagree over what constitutes a celebrity.
So, to all you prospective MPs and those looking to hang on to their expense accounts, whatever your colour of politics, I would like to offer a few pieces of advice:

1. Only email people who have asked to be emailed – to do otherwise is called spam
2. Segment your communications and only invite people to events who can actually attend them – it’s called knowing you electorate
3. Provide an unsubscribe function in your emails, at worst, if someone sends multiple email replies with the subject line ‘Unsubscribe’ it usually means that they want to unsubscribe from your list
4. It’s all in the name – anyone can have a googlemail account, the electorate don’t trust people who don’t have email accounts backed by their parties

How is your local candidate / MP doing? Are they Tweeting? Do they have a Facebook fan page, or are they sticking to leaflets through doors and kissing babies?

If you really want to get the latest politico tweets then check out TweetMinster.co.uk

Filed Under: Digital Marketing