Submitted for: Fall 2010 Edition

Two municipal races that took place this month are driving discussion on the role that social media and technology plays in modern campaigns.   According to a few breathless advocates, social media was primarily responsible for getting the new Mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, elected.   According to those who observed that particular municipal contest, it was Nenshi’s savvy use of online tools that propelled him to victory.  The results, they tell us, are proof positive that social media is the ultimate campaign weapon.

Only a few weeks later, outspoken Toronto councillor Rob Ford crushed his opponents to become the 64^th mayor of Canada’s largest city with only a website, some YouTube videos and a few tweets.  In that race, those who follow social media trends – even purveyors of social media software – were calling the Toronto mayoral contest the race that social media forgot.  And Ford still managed to get elected.

Both results seem to tell us very different things about the role social media has in political campaigns in Canada.  On the one hand, we have a campaign where social media played an important, if not critical, part in the victory of the candidate.  On the other, social media and the online component of the campaign played a secondary role and seemed to have minimal impact on the results.

So which is it?  Let’s look at both campaigns a little more closely.

By most accounts, the Naheed Nenshi campaign fully integrated social media right from the outset.  Both the candidate himself and the supporting campaign utilized the most commonly used social media tools to maximum effect.  Nenshi had a clean and easy-to-navigate website; he conversed with voters regularly on Twitter; his campaign offered a series of videos that gave voters an opportunity to learn more about Nenshi and his policies and ideas for the city that he wanted to lead.

His team held town hall meetings (posted online) where voters could ask him questions directly via Facebook or Twitter.  His Facebook Page was an interactive community that had four to five times more fans than his opponents.  Nenshi and his team understood the medium and they used it to get Nenshi‘s message out on a regular basis throughout the campaign – especially in the early days, when the mainstream media was virtually ignoring his candidacy.

Mayor-elect Rob Ford also ran a decidedly successful campaign, but social media played a far less central role in core activities.  Ford’s website was basic: the site design wasn’t particularly inspired and featured pretty standard information about the candidate, his policies, contact information, etc.  His team did have a Twitter account and Facebook Page where the campaign posted updates on policy announcements and upcoming events.  Occasionally they even interacted with voters.    But nothing really new.

Instead, Ford’s team focused on offline activities.  Most notably, they spent considerable resources on “tele-townhalls”, where thousands of voters were called simultaneously and offered the chance to participate in a conference call with Ford to answer questions on his platform, his record on council or whatever else participants wanted to discuss.

Ford was mocked in the media and by opponents for releasing a number of YouTube videos to accompany major policy announcements, videos which consisted of Ford sitting in his office, looking into the camera and reciting remarks either written on paper or through some sort of a prompter.  His team also released some humorous, crudely drawn cartoons spots featuring an animated, muscular Ford, adorned in a Superman costume, flying in and literally stopping the city hall gravy train in its tracks.

In all respects, the Ford campaign treated social media as an adjunct to their campaign, as opposed to a key element of it.   Instead, their campaign team focused on more traditional campaign techniques.  Social media did play a role, but it was arguably minor.

Both the Nenshi and Ford campaigns were successful.  Both campaigns were initially written off as longshots, but were able to best better known and arguably better-heeled, established opponents.  And both had two completely different approaches to social media.    So, what, if anything, can we learn from these two local contests?

The first lesson is one that fellow C&E columnist Warren Kinsella recently wrote of in a Toronto Sun piece about the mayoral race: campaigns matter.  But I prefer to put it a different way: social media won’t save you.   In the end, traditional social media is a network to communicate and engage with voters.  But it remains completely dependent on having a clear message that resonates with voters.

If your message is ineffective, unclear or out of touch, social media cannot and will not pull your campaign out of the fire.  A recent Globe and Mail digital technology columnist wondered whether Ford’s opponent, former provincial cabinet minister George Smitherman , could have won if he had just used Twitter better.  The answer is quite simple: nope.

Most observers dissecting Smitherman’s failed bid point to his convoluted message and the fact that his policies seemed to be all over the political map, whereas Ford kept to one simple message: respect for taxpayers.  In such a circumstance, delivering such a message through a social network or microblogging platform isn’t going to turn the ship around.  In fact, if you don’t have an effective message, it may even make things worse.

The second lesson from both campaigns is the importance of being authentic when using social media.  Both the Ford and Nenshi campaigns were confident in who they were and how they presented the candidates themselves: this is who I am.  Although Rob Ford and Naheed Nenshi are two very different people, both were happy to just be themselves.  And their online presence accurately reflected who they were.

Such an approach plays every well in a social media context.  Once of the more powerful features of social networks is the ability for the public to learn more about the candidate on their own time and in their own way.  Both campaigns provided the tools for voters to do that.  And that was an essential ingredient in their success – especially when they needed to circumvent how they were portrayed by their opponents, newspaper columnists or even a prevailing public perception.

Sure, Rob Ford’s YouTube videos were unpolished and direct – but so was Rob Ford.  That was the beauty of his approach – his online presence painted a holistic and accurate portrait of who Rob Ford was.  It gave voters the chance to hear directly from Ford about what his plans were in key areas of concern for voters.  And voters took advantage of the opportunity to learn more about Ford:  by Election Day, Ford’s campaign videos had been viewed over 170,000 times, versus opponent Smitherman who had less than 40,000 total views.

Both the Nenshi and Ford campaigns provide excellent templates for contemporary campaigning in Canada.   Both establish a reasonable baseline of activity for any serious campaign looking to utilize and integrate social media to connect to voters.  Were they particularly innovative?  No.  If you’re looking for cutting edge, various U.S. midterm campaigns offer a much more revealing glimpse of where online campaigns are headed.

But the important lesson they provide to us is what social media will or will not do for your campaign.  In a competitive campaign environment, social media can serve as a key element to broadcast your message, interact with voters and get out your vote.  And online campaigning will only become more critical as time (and technology) progresses.

But a winning campaign still needs a clear and relevant message and ideas that hold interest with a wide swath of voters.  It still needs a candidate that can appeal to voters and can communicate key themes and messages effectively.  It still needs an organization that can translate interest into votes at the ballot box.

In the end, social media can and will play an integral role in a campaign.  But without those other crucial elements, your may find yourself tweeting into the wind.