Building sustainable advocacy online
Hawaii. That is
what’s been on our minds the past
few weeks as we worked hard to finish out this election season. Hawaii is one of the prizes at the end of the
election cycle that our team looks forward to, regardless of election outcomes. But with a special election in California
next year an increasing likelihood, there won’t be much time before the next
cycle is upon us.
So, we are now setting our focus on increasing the overall
effectiveness of our clients’ campaigns, which includes building and mobilizing
advocacy through the use of digital grassroots techniques. Too often the time
required to develop digital grassroots advocacy is simply shortchanged by the
almost insanely time-compacted nature of traditional campaigning.
Often, when it comes to digital grassroots advocacy, only a
few short months (or weeks even) are spent building a supporter base with even
less time available for mobilizing those advocates. What’s worse, without
additional funding left in most campaigns, advocates are often abandoned right
after election day. This requires
building a supporter base from scratch again next year. While we all know that each of these
advocates deserves a break from the communications and activities that comes
with the intensity of election season, it should not be a 6-18 month vacation.