Some tips on how to get a crowd to your virtual event.
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Many candidates challenging incumbents are frustrated. Money is hard to raise. Newspapers aren’t covering their race. They try to do a virtual event, 15 sign up. Three attend, and one of them wants to dominate their entire conversation.
I recently helped to put together a zoom virtual event that was an enormous success, and I’ll share a few tips:
We first recruited two prominent experts who agreed to speak during the meeting. We then promoted the virtual event over a period of two weeks, using the guest speakers as part of the draw. They also recorded a short video about what the audience would learn which we used in our promotional emails.
Not only did the speakers promote the virtual event to their friends, we contacted some of the people in our campaign network that we knew to have a large following and a large email list, and asked that they help promote the event.
When people saw that they were going to learn something important to them, more than 200 registered.
But that’s not the end of the story.
The speakers used slides and videos in their presentations, which made their presentations more interesting. During the presentations we invited people to share their views and ask questions using the zoom chat box. That engaged the audience, and made them active participants.
We made use of zoom’s polling tool to gauge the attitudes of attendees, and the breakout room feature which allows you to assign members of the audience into small groups, who then discuss a topic, or answer a question, make new friends, and trade contact information.
Ideally, a zoom virtual event will yield volunteers, people who will help promote you to their friends, and campaign donations. None of that happens unless you draw a crowd to a meeting that sounds interesting, entertaining, and useful to the people in your jurisdiction.
A lot of candidates running this year are struggling with how to campaign, raise money, get attention, reach their followers, and grow their network of volunteers.
If you are running for office, and looking for help in your campaign, I would be happy to speak with you.
Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.
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Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.