GOOP has had the pleasure of assisting Geelong Mayoral candidate Keith Fagg with his campaign by developing and coordinating a social media approach to connect with the people and reach voters of Geelong. Keith approached GOOP for assistance when he realised he could use social media to raise awareness of his profile, and most importantly his vision for Geelong if he was elected Mayor. His team had built a website, set Keith up on Twitter and Facebook and had 15,000 fliers printed with his Facebook URL on it. What GOOP quickly discovered was that Keith’s Facebook page had been incorrectly set up as ‘personal’ page. Whilst this may not seem to be a problem to most people, it actually limits a public figure and/or business; people cannot ‘like’ your page, and apart from contravening the regulations stipulated by Facebook, it can be somewhat limited when it comes to sharing information, creating Facebook advertisements and adding features to the page ie Facebook tabs. GOOP set about quickly correcting the structure of the page which meant changing the personal profile to a business profile in Facebook so the existing 165 ‘friends’ could be transferred into ‘likes’ and we could retain the Facebook address which had been printed on all of the fliers that were being distributed to homes.
GOOP helped Keith develop a content management plan and posting strategy for the two week campaign. Strategically targeted messages from his Vision would be posted on a daily basis, complemented with photos, links to the website and intermittent Tweets from Keith as he was out and about on the campaign trail. GOOP also recommended running a Facebook campaign whereby Keith could extend his reach in the Geelong and Bellarine area and potentially target specific voting areas. Initially the objective of the advertising was to raise awareness of Keith as a candidate in the Geelong Mayoral campaign and attract ‘likes’ to the page. A basic ad was developed, target audiences and daily maximum dollar spend was set and the advertising started. What would follow was an effective awareness and reach campaign, with total reach (to friends of fans) increasing every two days – from 2,200 to 165,000 people. Naturally ‘Likes’ to the page increased significantly. The impact of this campaign, including Keith’s resounding ability to personally respond to comments and posts and by following the carefully structured plan resulted in an unprecedented outcome for his page (and undoubtedly awareness of his campaign efforts)
The Geelong Advertiser (23 October 2012) reported on social media being a strong medium of choice for candidates to connect with the community. The article (see below) referenced Keith being an outright leader in terms of followers on both Facebook and Twitter. The results speak for themselves.
The outcome of the Mayoral campaign in Geelong is yet to be determined but GOOP believes the efforts of Keith and his social media campaign will have been very worthwhile. A properly set up and structured page, a considered and targeted content and posting management plan, simple guidelines on managing positive and negative posts, regular posting of relevant content with engaging photos and especially inviting followers to comment on Keith’s policies, interlinking with Twitter all combined with a Facebook advertising campaign were the elements of success.
These are simple strategies that you and your business can employ. Contact us at GOOP if you would like more information or more insight into how we managed this campaign for Keith Fagg. Alternatively, contact us if you would like any assistance with your social media management.