My latest Campaigns & Elections column sets us up for the year ahead, with a look at three big trends that we should watch in 2018. A preview:
- Campaigns, nonprofits and other political actors will confront the same social-media challenge now bedeviling corporate brands: how to reach people through the “new Facebook”. With the platform emphasizing posts from friends and family, will campaigns still benefit from simply posting content? Or will they need to pay for the privilege of communicating with their own supporters?
- Campaigns also have the opportunity to consider new kinds of digital marketing technologies, particularly ones that use data and automated processes to reach voters with information tailored specifically for them. From “adaptive email” to Trump campaign-style Facebook outreach, watch for political groups to put to use all that data they’ve been gathering about us.
- Finally, look for a wave of innovation to come out of the new breed of organizations (and individual activists) whom Trump has spurred into action…against him. We can expect new technologies and tactics to come from the grassroots and from the groups that are building the capacity to train and support them.
Check out the full column for more! And while you’re there, don’t miss C&E’s other good coverage of digital politics and advocacy.
– cpd
Top photo by John Stephen Dwyer and courtesy of Wikipedia
