Everything you need to research for your political campaign

So you’re running for office or have someone who is planning to run for office this year. You’ve prepared all the necessary data and have also started the toughest job - actually starting the campaign.

But after this, what do you do? How do you continue the campaign? What are the key aspects to look at regarding your competitors, the territory, and other necessary details? Running an online political campaign using specific political campaign tools can help you stay ahead of others in the long run.

From political marketing to online political research, tools like Stillio can help you a great deal. Here are a few things that will help you to get ready for your political campaign.

Archive your website

Yes yes, this is an article about research for politics but first, you must archive your website, and here’s why. Website archiving helps you to keep a steady track of changes and developments.

You can even use the archives to figure out what went wrong with your earlier websites, if any, and improve later on. By keeping proper screenshots, you can refer to them anytime later and ensure long-term accessibility. Basically, you just select the information you need and store it for future use.

Now coming to its use in political campaigns, you must archive websites to keep a track of candidate profiles and information records. It also helps to provide a display of disclaimers.

For example, in the US, disclaimers are a must on the political committee’s internet pages. Using Stillio, you can keep this data saved for future reference.

Analyze competitor websites

While analyzing competitor websites, there are a few important criteria to remember. Some of them are candidate profiles, promises, and press pages (if any). 

Using Stillio you can track these variables with automated screenshots. These will be stored in your personal account for monitoring and analyzing whenever you want, instead of visiting each page manually.

With this information, you can ask yourself if there is any scope for improvement. Are there any areas where you can improve? If yes, then which are those areas? Should you do something to set yourself apart from these other candidates? Are you all appealing to the same demographic?

Monitor social media

When monitoring social media, you’ll need to have a clear vision of who your audience is. With that in mind, choose the platforms you’ll be monitoring. Don’t just go where your following is, try and expand to the entire audience so you can get different perspectives.

Once you have chosen the social platforms, you can try to run a search for yourself and then for your competitors. Next, search for specific terms like problems and trends. The best part about social media is that it shows honest opinions of people.

You can track social media mentions using Stillio, automating screenshots to keep a record of what people are saying about you on different platforms.

If you advertise your party’s agenda properly, you’ll be able to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. In order to have more proof, you can always keep screenshots and use them as records.

Build press clippings

Press clippings are necessary to keep track of what the media is saying about the different candidates or their political parties. Clippings can also help you pinpoint local problems your area might have been facing.

This will let you know where and how to improve. Ideal press clippings include print media sources like newspapers and magazines, online sources like blogs and PR websites, and broadcast media like television.

Press clippings can also help you to determine your own relationship with the media. If the media has a good impression of you and your work, you will be highlighted in a positive manner. This way, voters will be more inclined to choose you. Using specific keywords, search for your brand-related topics to see what the media has been talking about lately. 

You can check out our article on press clippings to find out more about how to build one.

Track trends

Tracking online trends helps you stay ahead of the game. This includes voter intent, consumer price index, and other variables like weather changes, traffic flows, and air quality index.

Google Maps traffic screenshots help you to understand urban planning and civil engineering to a great extent. Even before you step out of your house, you’ll be able to study the traffic and act accordingly. WIth Stillio, you can even take Google Maps screenshots and archive them. Just decide on the area you wish to focus on and adjust the zoom level.

Next, add this URL to your Stillio account and save it so that Stillio knows which map to study. According to your capture settings, Stillio will take periodic screenshots so that you don’t have to sit and do them manually. Sounds amazing, right?

You can even configure Stillio to take any snapshot from a range of predefined time slots like weekends, early mornings, or rush hours. Google Maps’ usage in city planning, real estate development, and civil engineering will help you immensely to improve your agenda and make your locality better. If you want to know more, read our piece about tracking traffic flows (and stay until the end for a timelapse!). 

Conclusion

Getting ready for a campaign is a very exciting, yet, scary prospect. But if you use the right tools in the right way, you won’t have to worry about how to get through to your audience. Campaign communications are very crucial and you must put them to good use to obtain maximum votes.

Using Stillio, your campaigns can now become so much easier! Feel free to book a demo with us so we can clear all your questions.