Whether you’re running for office, helping someone else run, or lobbying an issue with your local government, it’s not enough to have the best ideas, or even good ideas. You have to be able to communicate them in a way that reaches and educates people so that they can potentially take action.
Without that, you’re nowhere.
In order to communicate, you need to have access to the “means” of communication. Whether it’s a direct mail list, an email list or a million dollars to run TV and radio ads, it comes down to what your resources are and how many people they can reach. (Remember, politics is spelled P-E-O-P-L-E).
So, what are they?
Build a Communications Resources List
This is where you need to take a moment and do a “resources inventory” check.
What do you currently have access to? What are you likely to get access to? How many people can those resources reach? Who do you know who sympathizes with you and what resources do THEY have access to? How can you get them to help you promote your effort?
Don’t forget about asking elected officials you may be close to, or who may also be working on your issue to share a link to your content on their Facebook or Twitter pages.
Whether it’s email lists, mailing lists, Facebook, Twitter, etc., it all counts. So identify it all – then add it all up.
A good campaign plan will try to get the greatest benefit out of all available resources. Making a specific inventory increases the odds that you won’t overlook resources you could have used to get your message out and reach people who otherwise aren’t connected to you, your campaign or your issue.
The point is that you’ve probably got access to more resources that you think. So take some time and take inventory.
Social tagging: communications