Skip to main content
Search Icon
Quick Links
  • Adobe Completes Workfront Acquisition
  • Workfront + Adobe
  • Why Workfront is different
  • Leap Virtual Conference
  • Interactive Product Tour
  • Work Management Guide
Language Select Icon
US (English) UK (English) Dutch German Swedish
Login
Workfront ProofHQ
Contact Sales
Language Select Icon
US (English) UK (English) Dutch German Swedish
Workfront - An Adobe Company logo
Search Icon
Quick Links
  • Adobe Completes Workfront Acquisition
  • Workfront + Adobe
  • Why Workfront is different
  • Leap Virtual Conference
  • Interactive Product Tour
  • Work Management Guide
  • Why Workfront

    Overview

    Why We Are Different

    See what makes us stand out from the competition and why top brands trust us.

    Customers

    Learn how Workfront customers benefit from our work management solution.

    Partners

    Consult our extensive global partner network of digital transformation experts.

    Services

    Get comprehensive support, training, and a tailored implementation of Workfront.

    Recommended Content

    Workfront Overview

    With Workfront, enterprise work management can help your company, departments plan, predict, collaborate, evolve, and deliver their best work.

    Learn more
    Why workfront product screen.
    Learn more
    Up button icon
  • Solutions

    By Department

    Marketing

    Align marketing strategy to execution and launch campaigns faster.

    IT

    Transform the enterprise and deliver impact with data-driven decisions.

    Product Development

    Manage processes and automate work to launch winning products.

    Professional Services

    Manage client needs and deliver services faster.

    Agency

    Streamline workflows, manage resources, and deliver results.

    Explore all solutions

    By Use Case

    Project Management

    Plan projects, track progress, and deliver work that achieves results.

    Resource Management

    View capacity, make assignments, and prove your impact.

    Digital Collaboration

    Centralize communication, project planning, and work execution.

    Portfolio Planning

    Decide which projects to prioritize or pause, and identify those at risk.

    Strategic Planning

    Define business direction and outline a path for achieving your goals.

    Explore all use cases

    Recommended Content

    Mighty Guide: 7 Experts on Flawless Campaign Execution

    Read this Mighty Guide for advice from seven marketing experts on how to execute flawless campaigns under pressure.

    Learn more
    grey background with mighty guide logo
    Learn more
    Up button icon
  • Platform

    By Product

    Workfront

    Manage the entire lifecycle of work in a single, centralized solution.

    • Goals

      Align strategic goals to work, monitor progress, and drive amazing results.

    • Scenario Planner

      Plan continuously, compare scenarios, and determine the best path forward.

    • Fusion

      Integrate your favorite applications and automate work in one platform.

    Adobe Experience Cloud

    Digital experience solutions

    Explore the platform

    Tours & Demos

    Interactive Product Tour

    Get a hands-on look at managing all your work in Workfront.

    Scenario Planner Demo

    Experience how Scenario Planner simplifies the continuous planning process.

    Workfront Goals

    Align strategic goals to work, monitor progress, and drive amazing results.

    Explore all tours & demos

    Recommended Content

    Work Management Maturity Assessment

    The journey toward work optimization starts with understanding your organization’s current level of work maturity. Take the assessment and learn how to optimize work—at every level.

    Take the assessment
    Work Management Maturity Assessment
    Take the assessment
    Up button icon
  • Plans
  • Resources

    Learn

    Resource Center

    View webinars, reports, and studies to learn about the Workfront solution.

    Work Management Guide

    Learn everything you need to know about enterprise work management.

    Blog

    Prepare for the future of work with insights from work management leaders.

    Events

    Join Workfront at one of these events.

    Customers

    Workfront One

    Get product updates, connect with other users, and request product support.

    Training

    Become a Workfront expert with our library of training resources.

    Innovation Lab

    Submit and vote on product ideas.

    Workfront System Status

    Check on Workfront status, scheduled maintenance, and incidents.

    Recommended Content

    Level Up: How to Plan, Measure & Execute Strategic Growth Initiatives

    Ready to learn how to take advantage of new solutions to level up your strategic alignment in 2021? Join LeapPoint’s leadership, Workfront experts and special guests from Penn State University as they share best practices, tools and ideas to level-up your strategic alignment and execution for 2021.

    Learn more
    Work Boldly
    Learn more
    Up button icon
Search Icon
Quick Links
  • Adobe Completes Workfront Acquisition
  • Workfront + Adobe
  • Why Workfront is different
  • Leap Virtual Conference
  • Interactive Product Tour
  • Work Management Guide
Language Select Icon
US (English) UK (English) Dutch German Swedish
Login
Workfront ProofHQ
Contact Sales
Why Workfront
Overview

Why We Are Different

Customers

Partners

Services

Solutions
By Department

Marketing

IT

Product Development

Professional Services

Agency

By Use Case

Project Management

Resource Management

Digital Collaboration

Portfolio Planning

Strategic Planning

Platform
By Product

Workfront

  • Goals

  • Scenario Planner

  • Fusion

Adobe Experience Cloud

Tours & Demos

Interactive Product Tour

Scenario Planner Demo

Workfront Goals

Plans
Resources
Learn

Resource Center

Work Management Guide

Blog

Events

Customers

Workfront One

Training

Innovation Lab

Workfront System Status

Login
Workfront ProofHQ
Contact Sales
rules of social media
May 17, 2018

The 3 Rules of Social Media for Political Campaigns

In 2011, a Red Cross social media specialist, with access to her employer’s Twitter login credentials, enjoyed a night out with friends. Unfortunately, she posted a tweet about the evening’s alcohol consumption (“#gettingslizzerd”) on the official Red Cross feed. The organization responded with humor, tweeting that “the Red Cross is sober and we’ve confiscated the keys.” Hilarity ensued, donations poured in and the story ended happily. However, this rosy outcome is very rare of social media snafus.

In 2008, President Obama corralled a large number of young adult votes by engaging with them on Facebook and Twitter. Other candidates have since rushed to adopt similar social media strategies for political campaigns. This brings us to today, a time when social media is a necessary part of any campaign. To use social media in a successful way that avoids any chance of misuse and public backlash, political candidates need to follow a few golden rules before they plaster social channels with campaign content.

 1. Political Campaigns Are Brand Platforms

When it comes to today’s social media landscape, famous individuals are no different than big brand names, as far as how loudly their actions resonate and how carefully they must uphold the image they’d like to project. The same is true for political candidates, especially during widely visible elections. Donald Trump, for instance, embraced his outspoken nature and made waves during the 2016 election. While his Twitter rants make it seem as though he tosses catchphrases about willy-nilly, it is likely that his messaging is part of a larger strategy – a carefully orchestrated brand portrayal. 

Regardless of the face they present to the world, the inner workings of political candidates’ campaigns must be organized. Every tweet, every Facebook post, every blog post must follow a script and be part of a controlled message. Even Instagram posts must include talking points that lead back to a specific goal or set of goals. And, along the way, candidates would be wise to carefully archive their campaign’s social media activity. These regimented practices are the same many of today’s brands have in place.

Treating campaigns like brand platforms – by closely monitoring social media messaging – will help ensure political candidates don’t need to tweet “oops” posts. It can also help them combat the numerous organizations that exist solely to dig up dirt and haunting stories of candidates’ pasts. An errant tweet may be a publicist’s nightmare, but litigation stemming from social media misuse can be a campaign-ender. 

2. Brand Platforms Need Fully Baked Plans to Succeed

Once candidates establish that campaigns are indeed brand platforms, they must ensure the entire campaign team adheres to strict guidelines. Candidates need to develop and implement a fully baked plan that outlines goals, strategies and tactics before launching their social media campaign. Having a firm strategy in place will help mitigate errors and make it as hard as possible for campaign team members to make mistakes.

To make it as difficult as possible for campaign staffers to make mistakes, they must be trained to think digitally. McKinsey discusses the idea of raising an organization’s digital quotient. The firm suggests, “digital technology ramped up competition, disrupted industries, and forced businesses to clarify their strategies, develop new capabilities, and transform their cultures.” In order to think digitally and to raise digital quotients, political campaign teams must be agile and adaptable. They must understand the risks inherent in using social media and how to reach digitally plugged-in voters without compromising brand image.  

Training a team to think digitally may even include preemptively taking the keys away – making sure staffers have logged out of the campaign’s social media accounts before embarking on personal evening adventures. Or even insisting that only campaign provided-devices be used for social media. 

3. Still, There Must Be a Contingency Plan

At the end of the day, campaign workers and strategists are only human, and there will inevitably be errors. Candidates must make sure they have a contingency plan in place for when these accidents do occur. They must develop a communications tree, assign a plan for escalation and empower the right people to make decisions.

If someone leaves the keys in the ignition and tweets out a racy quote or lewd photo, what happens next? Depending on the severity of the mistake, someone else involved in the campaign must be notified to take action. Who gets the call when there’s a typo? How many people need to be on the case when a staffer posts a misconceived meme on the campaign’s Facebook page? How do you reach said people when a mistake happens? 

Most importantly, campaigns need to empower the right people to make decisions for better or for worse. When the lights went out at Super Bowl XLVII, Oreo promptly tweeted an image of an Oreo cookie in a small glow of light above the words, “You can still dunk in the dark.” Yet what if the right person had not been empowered to approve that tweet? What if the chain of command was so long that the timeliness of the message was lost? 

Social Media Rules

Social media is an inescapable part of any brand or campaign strategy. It’s how customers and constituents connect with one another, and the brands and candidates they follow. Yet the social media landscape is also a dangerous one. To successfully traverse this landscape, a political candidate must establish a brand voice, implement a firm set of rules for portraying that voice and ensure backup plans are in place. President Obama illustrated the benefits social media can have for campaigns; many others have demonstrated the mistakes that are so easy to make. Candidates who follow these golden rules are much more likely to achieve the former.     

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Get Workfront blog updates straight to your inbox.

Why Workfront
  • Why We Are Different
  • Customers
  • Partners
  • Services
Solutions
  • Departments
  • Use Cases
Platform
  • Products
  • Plans
  • Tours & Demos
Resources
  • News & Press
  • Resource Center
  • Blog
  • Workfront One
Support
  • System Status
  • Help
Adobe logo
  • Careers
  • Privacy Notice
  • Security
  • Terms of Service
  • Cookie Policy
  • Resources Index
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Instagram
Contact Us
Copyright © 2021 Workfront, Inc. All Rights Reserved.