Web marketing for Politicians and Political Parties
- By: mruthenberg
- On: 05/17/2009 17:29:52
- In: Industry-specific Topics
- Comments: 0
Get the highest online visibility for Politicians, Candidates, and Political parties using the FoundLocally.com free listings. Gain traction & visibility for greater momentum for when an election is called.
FoundLocally is a great way for political parties, riding associations, elected politicians and candidates to raise their own visibility, not just by adding themselves to our high-traffic community directory, but by posting news, jobs (and, volunteer opportunities, too!), as well as events to increase the number of pages on their FoundLocally listing, and therefore the number of link-backs to their website.
This approach is very effective for SEO (search engine optimization): the more pages on FoundLocally the more link-backs you have, and the higher your ranking and findability! Many political groups overlook the opportunities online to not only extend reach, but do so economically and to extend tight campaign budgets by increasing their online footprint by participating in as many directories as possible (and especially the free ones, like FoundLocally.com!) With a little bit of effort, they can enhance their online marketing to support their operations: posting jobs, promoting events, promoting sales, discounts and coupons, posting news announcements.
We also can provide access for provincial or federal groups to quickly post News items to all their listings on FoundLocally with just a few mouse clicks, providing consistency, an unfiltered message (no reporters to botch it up!), time-savings in a busy campaign, and a significantly greater reach
More proactive political parties, constituency associations, and candidates also use FoundLocally.com to raise their visibility during non-election cycles, posting o-going news, perspective, party leader visits, as well as town-hall meetings and .other appearances by local candidates. These small efforts will have a dramatic impact on search engine findability during campaigns that are too short to do any really effective web marketing.
Making the Most of Your PROFILE
- Use the Name field to not only name the candidate, but the party and the name of the riding
- Use the Name2 field for nicknames and acronyms, old riding names, etc so they are searchable, but not displayed
- Use the Address2 field to repeat the Riding name (or Ward in a municipal context)
- Use the Description field to state your key branding message, which should describe the benefits of voting for the individual and the party
- Use the Products/Brands to identify key items in the party’s platform, or key local issues
- Link to the candidate’s own or the political party’s website, and include the logo.
- In the Contact field, insert your website’s Contact Us webpage URL instead of an e-mail address, to reduce chance of spam e-mails.
TIP: Have your candidates and elected members add themselves to the Free Listings as well, not just for the mention of their name in FoundLocally’s directory (which you, the Party, might do on their behalf), but enable them to post their own News, Events, and Jobs/Volunteers items to their free listing.
Multiple CONTACTS to Update Listing(s)
- Set up multiple contacts per listing using the CONTACTS tab and “Add New”, to add additional staff people in your organization, so each can post items to your listing, or login to update items already posted
- You can also add marketing, HR, and Operations persons who can login and update the operational components of their FoundLocally listings, letting you focus on web marketing and website design.
- Add a political party access to each of the candidate’s/politician’s FoundLocally listings, so announcements of national, provincial, or regional interest can be quickly posted by an individual or organization (with appropriate authorization) to all listings at once
Posting NEWS Announcements
- You should post announcements (using the NEWS tab of each respective listing) to FoundLocally listings at the same time as it is sent out to other media outlets.
- News postings can dramatically improve your findability by increasing the association of keywords in the news story with your/your candidate’s/party’s web site and name. In addition this can improve your/your organization’s creditability as an industry information resource.
- NEWS items are active immediately, and are unfiltered. They are published with your exact words (no reporter intermediary to take things ”out of context” , add personal “spin” (bias?), or botch them up.
- Announcements stay posted until you take them down. On FoundLocally, news has a long shelf life. FoundLocally news is not thrown out or recycled the next day, like with a newspaper!
Posting EVENTS
- You can use the EVENTS tab to post any special events, Town Hall meetings, campaign appearances.
- EVENTS postings can link to their own web page if you have an event that people need to RSVP for or buy tickets.
- See special tips for Festivals & Community Events
TIP: These linked pages can be on your site, the candidate’s or a third party (like, say, MeetUp or Facebook)
Posting JOBS to fill staffing needs
- You can use these listings to recruit people for internal or member needs using the JOBS tab.
- Candidates and constituency associations/riding associations a can use the JOBS tab to post volunteer opportunities…
- Position descriptions can be standardized for all constituency groups, and candidates for a Party, so they only need to be made “Active” without any typing required.





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