Here's why the 'Help me get more followers' tactic is inefficient for campaigns on social media
We have all seen it: "I need to get 1,000 more followers by midnight. Retweet this and help us reach our goal."
A lot of candidates and campaigns do it — regardless of party affiliation. It was a popular stunt during the 2022 Gubernatorial race in Florida.
Yes, adding followers could help with relevancy in the algorithms on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Campaigns, however, should be putting more of a focus on getting the right followers.
It's counterproductive for a statewide candidate in Florida to be asking for retweets and follows from people all over the country when only registered Florida voters can actually cast a vote for that candidate. The inflated digital numbers don't move the needle in real life.
The same rule trickles down to local candidates. Focus closer to home, not elsewhere if they can't bubble in your name at the ballot box.
While it's great to see high follower counts on profiles, social platforms often put more of an emphasis on the content of the account, not the follower count.
Campaigns should have a plan to execute high-quality content, posting at the more beneficial times and engaging in two-way communications with voters. If you're doing paid social, make sure your audience is highly targeted.
Check out the tallyED Network tool. It can be found on the Voter Tools tab when you're logged in to your tallyED account. The tallyED Network tool allows you to add registered voters as connections. You can invite them to join tallyED, communicate and organize with them, and track them to the ballot box to make sure they cast their vote.