Featur e
Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.
– Sun Tzu
2) Get Professional Help
It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on. – Sun Tzu
The most confusing thing about online campaigning is
the volatility implicit in it as well as the rapid and evolving technology changes that make last election cycle’s innova- tion seem useless in the next. You will not be able to manage this casually, and only through professional support can you make this volatility manageable. You wouldn’t ask your kids to make up door hangers using construction paper and cray- ons, and by the same token you shouldn’t ask your children to manage donations through your Facebook site.
Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.
– Sun Tzu Online campaign consultants are affordable, and have
pricing to meet to all budget sizes. It’s not just knowing how to use the free tools, but how to use the tools well to achieve your goals. Many of the best direct mail and print-
58 Campaigns & Elections | Canadian Edition
ing firms are now offering online consulting practices as a way of ensuring their continuing success through this media shift, and companies such as RaiseDigital (www.raisedigital. com) owned by printing firm HSP Direct and ID_Media (
www.idmcommunications.com) are examples of two in- novative firms with a grasp on managing campaigns through volatile shifts in technology.
3) Set a Reasonable Online Campaign Budget While many of the tools for online campaigning are
free, implementing the best practices with qualified profes- sionals is not. As was widely publicized, Obama outspent McCain 10 to 1 online during the 2008 election, but as a percentage of his overall campaign, he only spent 5% of this budget online. More recent budget numbers showed that Governor Christie’s winning campaign in New Jersey spent 7% of their budget online and Scott Brown in his upset win in Massachusetts spent approximately 10% of his budget online.
… the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no
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