Managing Your Campaign's Social Media

It’s time to post, publish, and engage people!

Helping you understand the different types of social media and how to work with each one of them

Yes, the number of digital networks and platforms can feel overwhelming. But everything will be fine; here we share some guidelines on how to decide how much energy to invest in these tools.

First tip is: don’t start creating accounts and profiles randomly. First, bring your team together to think collectively about what your campaign’s digital ecosystem on social media will look like. Assess the role and ideal flow for each platform. Don’t forget to check where your target audiences are, that’s where you need to be. To further support this decision, we list below the most common objectives and their main aspects:

	Objective	Platform	Tip
Dissemination	Expand the number of people who know about the campaign, establish initial contact in the digital space, and spread your main ideas.	Tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.	Don’t fall into the trap of trying to manage a profile on ALL platforms. Find the one that best fits your audience and focus your energy there.
Information	Centralize campaign information, content, and media, allowing for deeper engagement with issues and with the candidate.	Having a website is the best option in this case.	WordPress tools are usually intuitive and easy to use.
Mobilization	Bring people and contacts together in an organized way, enable direct communication with groups, volunteers, and people involved in the campaign.	Usually messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, email, and SMS.	Research the new community features on WhatsApp. Remember that WhatsApp is the most widely used messaging platform in Brazil. Check what’s used on your country. Organize groups by territory or by priority themes for the campaign.

Great! Now that you’ve reflected on how to use different platforms, let’s move on to the next step.

Below, you can identify everything from the minimum number of people and structure you need to what you might consider the most ideal scenario possible for your political campaign on social media.

Basic campaign

Requires one to two people on the dedicated team;
Use one or two platforms to spread the campaign and have a website to organize and make all campaign and candidate information accessible;
Mobilize people through WhatsApp (or any other mobilization platform), connecting people involved in your campaign and potential voters;
Collect data at in-person events so you can send direct messages, always requesting authorization and respecting the General Data Protection Law.

Ideal campaign

Requires at least two people on the dedicated team;
Use at least two platforms to spread your campaign and have a website to organize and make campaign and candidate information accessible;
Mobilize people through WhatsApp (or any other mobilization platform), connecting people involved in your campaign and potential voters;
In addition to in-person events and activities, the website should also prioritize collecting visitors’ WhatsApp numbers and email addresses.

Dream campaign

Requires at least five people on the dedicated team;
In this case, you can use more resources. The strategy here is to ensure that all dissemination and reach channels connect with information and mobilization tools as well;
In this model, workflows are more complex and require greater dedication and care from the team when handling data;
Knowing how to create content in different formats and styles is essential, as each network has its own specificities, including the audience that uses it.

You already know which structure your team fits into, right? Great! After that, think about the heart of it all: content. Without the ability to produce content consistently and frequently, your mobilization power will be lower.

One essential tip here is: post regularly. This means that maybe, with the time you have available, you can only make one or two posts per day, and that’s fine. What matters is maintaining a flow and creating rules. If your real capacity is two daily posts, use that as a constant guideline and only change it to increase the volume, okay? Keeping the rhythm is everything!

Visual assets for social media. What do you need for your campaign?

Covers for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube;
Avatar for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp;
Digital “santinha”/lapel sticker/campaign card
Tip: use Twibbon, a free website for creating and joining campaigns to support causes, brands, or associations on social media.

Tips for content production

The website is the ideal place to gather all information and basic promotional materials for your campaign. It works as a repository. There, you can make materials available for volunteers to download, such as social media graphics and press releases.

Use the site as a space to explain in depth who you are and what you want as a candidate, as well as your campaign proposals. In addition, here are some content tips:

Share press coverage about you;
Create a Frequently Asked Questions file (FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions, in English). Answer common questions from your audience. Example: why you decided to become a candidate, your background, and your positions on certain issues;
Reserve a prominent space on the website for your candidate number, but pay close attention to the electoral calendar to avoid mistakes; the number can only be disclosed during the official campaign period;
Depending on the scale of your campaign or the level of scrutiny around the elections you’re running in, the website can also be an important tool to create a dedicated space, such as a single page (landing page), to clarify false or misleading news.

Content boosting

One thing is certain: without investing money in social media, your reach will be smaller. So, set aside part of your budget for boosting posts.

It’s important to think about this budget together with someone who has experience in the area. For example, since 2020, Facebook Business, the platform used to boost content on Facebook, Instagram, Stories, and Messenger — has aligned its pricing with the US dollar. This means it’s no longer possible to invest just R$5 per post, for example. Even with this difference, investing in boosted content on social media is still much cheaper than other types of media, such as printing flyers or even paid ads in newspapers.

Content: Duda Alcantara, Marcelo Bolzan, Marina Frota, and Tulio Malaspina

Writing: Semayat Oliveira

Project: Giulia Fagundes and Thaiz Leão

Facilitation: Carol Delgado

Coordination: Alejandra Parra and Gabi Juns

These contents were developed collaboratively during an immersion held in March 2020, with representatives from several organisations.

Review and update 2024: Dany Fioravanti