The Way to Campaign (Second of Two Parts)

May 11, 2019 Opinion Sideglance

Just like throwing a pebble in a still pond the outward rippling effect generated by that stone is the same campaign strategy you will need to implement to widen your familiarity with your potential voters starting of course with your barangay.

You have two and half years to do it so divide effort and time in days, weeks and months. Use technology in reaching out to these voters.

The goal to be achieved is for the candidate (you) to have at least met or encountered all the voters in the City at least once during the two and half years of early campaigning strategy.

At the end of two and half years the candidate (you) should have a working database of those who would likely vote in your favor from each of the 128 barangays in the City.

By that time the candidate should in all likelihood already know a majority of these voters personally by acquaintance and has on occasion engaged them in conversations and discussions either through social media, mobile phone, landline or on a person-to-person meeting.

In reaching out personally to these voters it becomes vital to use a personal network of selected loyalists and supporters who are strategically assigned a particular barangay with whom to engage.

Ideally the candidate (you) should have at least four (4) in the minimum and six (6) in the maximum of loyal and dedicated supporters who would be willing to sacrifice time, effort and resources in trying to establish a network of voter-acquaintances in a particular barangay.

They will work simultaneously with the candidate in reaching out and touching-base with these voters for the two and a half years timeline for the conduct of the campaign strategy.

These dedicated supporters will have the task of collating, storing and updating the list of voters in a particular barangay as well as filtering them according to categories such as but not limited to the following: contacted, not yet contacted, professional, non-professional, worker or laborer, large family, small family, with landline/without landline, Facebook, twitter, etc. user/non-user, high income, middle income or lower income bracket, etc.

The important thing in establishing a comprehensive list of these voters is to lay the groundwork for the candidate to reach out to them within the framework of the two and half year campaign strategy.

Another important aspect of this modified voters list is to establish a profile for each individual voter or a specific group of voters so that the candidate (you) will have a better understanding on how to go about trying to establish a relationship with them.

At the end of two and half years of low key campaigning the candidate (you) should already know the estimated number of voters in a particular barangay who will vote for him.

In all likelihood he is superficially aware of who these voters are, what sector of society they belong to, their religion and their various interests.

More importantly the candidate has at one time or another, within the two and half year period of strategic campaigning, personally met these voters and had occasion to talk to and discuss issues
with them.

This is what is what may be termed as personal engagement with voters. It would even be better if somehow the candidate (you) is able to assist or help them in some way, materially or otherwise, because in that way the relationship that will be established will be much more binding and permanent.

For those candidates who would want to try this kind of campaign strategy it will surely require considerable commitment and dedication as well as some resources, but at the end of the day the reward will certainly be worth the effort.