In the wake of the 2016 elections, it's unsurprising to see a wave of progressive candidates entering the political process for the first time. Inspired by Bernie Sanders' famous invitation to his supporters to get involved, these candidates tend to be passionate, principled, and well-versed in the issues of the day.
Unfortunately, they tend to be less familiar with how a local political campaigns actually works or how to attract the attention of prospective supporters in the community. That being the case, I'd like to share an extremely important bit of news with every first time candidate who might be reading this: No one out there cares about you or your campaign.
That might seem like terrible news but, understood properly, it's actually a fundamental key to your success as a candidate. Your most pressing challenge is to get voters to pay attention to what you're saying and, unless you are already a celebrity, you cannot do that by talking about you. You can only do that by talking about them.
The best marketing guy I ever knew put it this way: Your job as a communicator is to enter into a conversation that the person you're talking to is already having in his or her own head. And if we think about that principle for even a moment, it will be clear that the dialog that's already going on in the head of a prospective supporter is never about you. It's always about them. In a local political context, it's about how policies and issues will affect them and their kids.
Here's one way to look at it: Every potential voter or supporter is tuned in to one (and only one) radio station, WII-FM. Those call letters stand for "What's in it for me?" Unless you're answering that question for them, they're tuning you out.
No one understands this principle better than Bernie Sanders. In the 2016 campaign, CNN compared two speeches, one by Sanders and one by Hillary Clinton. The result was telling:
She used the pronouns "I" or "me" in that speech 44 times. She used the words "we" or "us" less than half that amount -- 21 times. For Sanders, it was the exact opposite. Sanders used the words "I" or "me" 26 times. "We" or "us" was used more than twice as much -- 54 times.
If you want to influence prospective supporters, your first job is to grab their attention. Make sure that your communications—your speeches, your web site, your press releases—are all voter-centric. Make sure you're broadcasting your message on WII-FM.