Admittedly I did not apply the philosophy below to my own local elections this year. But this is the method I followed to help a Progressive Democrat win in Western New York. The candidate had been posting some things on a site I ran and I noticed his campaign site needed help.
1. Make sure your coding is correct so that the search engines will be able to index your site properly. Your site should be ready to go before you announce, if not make it a priority ASAP as media articles referring to you will sometimes include links to your site and you don’t want it to look like a mess. Yes a blog is a must. An events calendar is also very helpful as people feel welcome to join in the fun right away.
2. Post photos of the candidate interacting with people at local events. At the same time begin advertising the site in every conceivable location, if the site is broken down into issues register those sections of the site with indexes that are related to the topic, register news feeds with aggregate sites and search for local engines and link lists.
3. Reach out to bloggers and local radio. No bloggers in your particular town? Find the nearest progressive bloggers and radio hosts and float the idea of an interview and ask them if they know of anyone in your district. Take the time to read through their posts and get a sense of which issues are important.
4. Search your competitor’s dirty secrets, everyone thinks to do this on the national level but not always on the local level. Voting records, corruption, past statements on important issues etc.
5. For the bloggers, posting funny pics can go a long way as they become viral. I posted a piece that had an important impact on the Gillibrand race. Your insights will have a much bigger impact on local races if local people can find them. Make sure your blog is set up properly for your district, or consider starting a new one just for the particular campaign you are interested in helping.
6. When the site has a good flow going, advertise again, do another wave based on the new information being exchanged on the site. Paying for advertising online is up to the campaign, if the bloggers have done their job there should be little need, if the competitor is doing it however, examine where their ads are popping up and see if you can outsmart them with placement and message.
7. Be friendly to your IT guys, they will be friendly to you, piss them off and look out friend. Never make an enemy of someone trying to help you win. Invite them to live blog events which you know will have a good turn out and focus on the community.
8. If one IT person can help to win one election for the democrats…imagine what several IT people working together could do? Think about it Dems….please.