Reloading: Constituent Services

Hungover from 2016, overindulged in some politics, swore you’d never get involved again?

We all felt like that rolling into January but, if you were lucky enough to win elected office in 2016 you will need to consider constituent services in 2017!. Using political campaign software might just be the way to do that. Calls for protests are the norm in 2017 but if we want to enact change that matters, we need to start by working with our electorate to hear what they have to say and act upon that.

Building solid foundations at a grassroots level isn’t a throwaway idea that works for 3 months prior to an election and then we forget about it. We need to start earlier, we need to continue to evolve and plan for long-term implementation.

Rebooting for 2017: Let’s Track Every Interaction

Politics is essentially local, it begins and ends with the people. If we want to have greater transparency with our electorate, then we need to maintain better relationships. The open door policy needs to exist within a community. A citizen needs to be able to come to a politician's constituency office and know their issue is being heard and managed.

Too many times we see individuals taking to social media complaining about how the person they voted for has disappeared. The belief is that representatives get swept up in bigger national issues and are no longer concerned with the issues they campaigned for (sidenote: The Donald cannot be accused of this!). The advice we offer here is to prioritize and set an agenda for exactly what you want to achieve in your first year in office. Schedule meetings for the entire community to attend where you can update them on what’s been going on. Update your Twitter feed and Facebook page daily about matters you are covering. It’s not just a case of being seen to be doing things, you must actually do!!

Political Campaign Software Helps

Political campaign software is sometimes seen as an unnecessary add-on, something that representatives can do without, but why? Every year, we work with politicians who are constantly reinventing the wheel with how they are using software to better serve their electorate and there is a lot to be learned from them.

Many use it to track issues that their constituents bring to them

Ecanvasser has a great feature that allows you to view your voter file in great detail. If you are speaking with Josie Smith who resides at No.8, Avenue, High Park, you can record your interaction. Add an issue if she has a problem and track it as you deal with it.

Build better relationships with voters

Having a profile for each individual on the electorate is akin to Facebook. You can easily send people a text, email or phone call. Keep in touch, you are there to represent them but at the end of the day, you guys are collaborators in the process.

Continued outreach

More functionality in Ecanvasser allows you to send out email blasts, so if you are organizing a town hall meeting, you can easily access your electorate with a click of the button. It’s like having all of your collected intelligence in one place.

Deal with certain groups within a community

As a politician, you will need to deal with various community organizations and you will need to be up to date on their agendas and how they coincide with your own. Segment your People page to reflect all this information. Having all this synced to your phone makes it stress-free if you only have a few minutes to read up on them before a meeting.