Need help? Ask!
Big Block of Cheese's post on the CNN.com article, "Fighting for every last vote", brings up a great point that all too many campaigns forget when it comes to recruiting volunteers....ask them!
Bai's article, echoes the same sentiment as he spoke with numerous Bush volunteers during the 2004 campaign in Ohio, ''No one is going to walk up to you and say, 'Can I help George W. Bush?' Dewey Stokes, the county commissioner for Franklin County, told about 100 volunteers at one of these sessions. ''You have to ask. Why are you all here tonight? Because someone asked you. You've got friends, relatives, co-workers -- ask them to help.''
This is very true, campaigns cannot expect voters to volunteer on their own accord. Volunteers must be courted and asked. No matter how great the candidate, how savvy the website, how inspiring the message -- most volunteers in any campaign are asked, many do not step forward on their own. It is important that a campaign must ensure a solid recruitment strategy which incorporate asking volunteers, not just a strategy to persuade them to volunteer.
Furthermore, the use of viral marketing is crucial in recruiting volunteers, online or offline. Friends asking friends to become involved is the most productive way to recruit volunteers. This was the technique employed in the Bush campaign's "Plan", which gave recruitment goals for volunteers and it worked. People are much more likely to lend a hand when approached by someone they know versus someone they don't.
First and foremost, volunteers must be asked!
Bai's article, echoes the same sentiment as he spoke with numerous Bush volunteers during the 2004 campaign in Ohio, ''No one is going to walk up to you and say, 'Can I help George W. Bush?' Dewey Stokes, the county commissioner for Franklin County, told about 100 volunteers at one of these sessions. ''You have to ask. Why are you all here tonight? Because someone asked you. You've got friends, relatives, co-workers -- ask them to help.''
This is very true, campaigns cannot expect voters to volunteer on their own accord. Volunteers must be courted and asked. No matter how great the candidate, how savvy the website, how inspiring the message -- most volunteers in any campaign are asked, many do not step forward on their own. It is important that a campaign must ensure a solid recruitment strategy which incorporate asking volunteers, not just a strategy to persuade them to volunteer.
Furthermore, the use of viral marketing is crucial in recruiting volunteers, online or offline. Friends asking friends to become involved is the most productive way to recruit volunteers. This was the technique employed in the Bush campaign's "Plan", which gave recruitment goals for volunteers and it worked. People are much more likely to lend a hand when approached by someone they know versus someone they don't.
First and foremost, volunteers must be asked!
1 Comments:
In some ways, it's very similar to fundraising: most donors just aren't going to give unless they are explicitly asked to.
I think this hits on something most campaign workers don't think about much: people outside of the business don't always know how things work. If they've never given to a campaign before, they likely don't undertand the mechanics of giving; if they've never volunteered for a campaign, they won't necessarily know how to go about doing so.
Asking people for support--whether in terms of money or time--is hard (at least it certainly is for me personally). But if you don't ask, you will certainly fail to take advantage of people who want to support you but don't exactly know how to.
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