The Campaign Trail
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e Campaign Trail Campaigns have focused a great deal of time and money on directly reaching out to voters and constituents. Direct contact tactics have worked for years, and I had the opportunity to see this first-hand while campaigning in Ohio, an essential battleground state in the 2012 election. President Barack Obama waves to supporters at a campaign rally in Cincinnati. 1
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A look into how direct campaign techniques can be just as effecient as social media tactics.
Transcript of The Campaign Trail
The Campaign Trail
Campaigns have focused a great deal of time and money on directly reaching out to voters and constituents. Direct contact tactics have worked for years, and I had the opportunity to see this first-hand while campaigning in Ohio, an essential battleground state in the 2012 election.
President Barack Obama waves to supporters at a campaign rally in Cincinnati.
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DIRECT CONTACT vs.SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
Campaign managers, while focusing many efforts on social media tar-geting, also realize the importance of getting volunteers into neigh-borhoods to knock on doors. As a volunteer in Ohio myself, I got the opportunity to go door-to-door campaigning for Obama. Going
door-to-door is a way for vol-unteers, and in most cases lo-cal candidates, to get the op-portunity to talk with voters on a personal level. Knocking on a complete stranger’s door is not something most people enjoy, but for me, it was ex-citing because I was helping a cause that I firmly believe in. Most candidates, especially those running for high profile offices like president, do not have trouble finding people that are willing to go door-to-door. Some volunteers, like Dr. Jeanne Corwin, feel like going door-to-door is not for them. Dr. Corwin is an Ohio
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DIRECT CONTACT vs.SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
Obama supporter who allowed WKU students to stay in her home for the weekend. “It’s my way to contribute,” Corwin said. Rather than immersing herself onto the campaign trail, Corwin prefers to open up her home. Social media will continue to grow, but direct contact with voters is something that will
Hashtags and social media accounts hang on display in the Obama headquarters in downtown Cincinnati.
remain constant in political campaigns. Even if the candi-date is not doing the walking, the volunteers can definitely do the talking. When voters see other people working hard for a candidate, it is more likely that they will be inspired to volun-teer themslevs, or at least make a trip to the polls.
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President Obama’s campaign bus parked outside the headquarters in downtown Cincinnati.
President Obama’s 2012 cam-paign was centered around his slogan ‘Forward.’ I found it in-teresting, while I was making phone calls and knocking on doors, that sometimes the best
tactics are the ones that were used when political campaigns initially emerged. Using direct contact tacticts to “get out the vote” was extremely beneficial for the Obama campaign.
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A Step Back to Move Forward
