Is Google Plus a Game Changer for Political Candidates?

As communication technology continues to evolve, so does political strategy.  Before mass media, political communication consisted of largely one on one communication or speaking in front of small community groups.

This is clearly still part of an effective political campaign, but in and of itself will not allow you to reach enough people in a broad election.  For that, you need to take your message to mass media including television, radio, print, and online.

Mass communications such as these allow you to reach a large audience quickly.  Unfortunately, what you lose is the ability to tailor a message to a particular audience or even a specific person.  In the masmedia world, you have to be everything to everybody, which is very hard to do.

Google Plus presents an opportunity to change all of that.  One of the unique features of Google Plus is the introduction of Circles.  Circles allow you to place your connections in different groups (circles) based on what you want to share with each of the groups.  Examples of circles could be college friends, co-workers, family, etc.  You can put someone in more than one circle.  The people you put in circles will not know what circle they are in, only that you have them in a circle.  This means you could put your annoying cubicle neighbor in a circle called “loudmouths” and he would never know.

The reason Google Circles are relevant for political candidates is that it allows you to have the best of both worlds.  Through Google Plus, you have access to a platform that will be able to reach hundreds of millions of people across the country.  You will also have the ability to tailor a message to specific groups of voters.  For instance, you could have circles that represented different issues such as economy, foreign affairs, social issues, education, etc.  By placing people in the circle representing the issues that are most important to them, you can be sure that you are connecting with them about the issue that is most important to them.

From the voters standpoint, this will be totally transparent.  They will not know what messages you are sending to which circle.  iIf a voter says education is the most important issue to them, they will consistently see messages about this subject.  Whether they agree with you on all of your stances is not necessarily as important as the fact that they will see how much focus you put on the issue.  In many cases you will be able to dispel misconceptions or explain positions in a way that sheds light on your thought process.  This strategy will allow you to create a much deeper connection with voters by customizing your message based on what they care about.

When you think about it, candidates are already doing this on a local level.  When a candidates goes to speak to a local NRA group, he will tailor his message to his or her views on gun rights.  This doesn’t mean that he or she should change their views on the subject to match the group.  That would be unauthentic.  It means that they will speak about the issues that the audience cares the most about.  In this case that means talking about their views on gun ownership.  The audience will then be able to make an educated decision about whether or not to support the candidate.

The first step in implementing this strategy will be to identify and segment your supporters.  If you are a candidate or know someone who is interested in discussing this further, please feel free to contact me at James@AltosMarketing.com.  I would be happy to work with you in setting up a strategy for Google Plus.  If you are in need of an invite to Google Plus, please send me a note with your Gmail account and I will be happy to send one to you.