It should be no surprise that the midterm elections are around the corner. I’m sure we’ve all seen the plethora of ads and commercials that have taken up every inch of public space recently. Multichannel marketing is a sure-fire way to make certain your targeted audience doesn’t miss your message and the candidates this season knew what they were doing. They were all over your mail, your street signs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Even if you didn’t know their message, you knew their name. 
Both tragically and thankfully, this election season is nearly over, however there is still plenty of time to get educated and get to the polls! Don’t let the rhetoric and oversaturated market you’re seeing scare you away!
I understand how it could feel overwhelming with how intense our political climate seems to be nowadays. New policies and claims appear to be made daily that threaten the lives of minorities, women, the LGBT+ community, and many others. From DACA to birth control to trans livelihoods to gun control, there seems to always be something new and confusing to comprehend in the political sector.
The issues lie with all the campaign ads you see, and the crazy claims being made by publications and political groups. Don’t let all the talk freak you out. This is an exciting and promising time in politics-we can make a real change. Take all the advertising you see with a grain of salt. We know to be responsible communicators and go into the world with honesty and transparency, and to do good. Unfortunately, not everyone communicates in this way and it’s important to keep that in mind. So, when the opportunity presents itself to make a difference about who gets to represent you in Washington, you need to take it.
Here’s five steps you can take to tackle this as educated as possible!
- Register
Several states allow voters to register on election day! If you’re lucky enough to live in those few states, congratulations! If you’re a resident of NC I hope you planned and registered ahead of time, because the deadline has unfortunately passed. Registering to vote is the first step in our voting process and if the number of ads we see to encourage registration is anything to go by, it might be the most important. What can you do if you aren’t registered? If you missed the deadline this time around, don’t worry. There is a lot you can do to help the candidates you support. The rest of this list won’t be too useful for a while but feel free to continue reading anyways and share it! You never know who could need a little push in the right direction.
2. Think
You know what’s important to you and what values you want upheld. Really think of how you believe those values should be fought for in office. What do you want your candidates to stand for? Guide yourself by the issues you see discussed on the news, online, in your classes. How do you feel about gun control, abortion, education, universal healthcare? While I do believe the information we see is highly polarized and a lot of times dramatized, those are issues that matter. There are so many policies to have opinions on and the more you understand your own, the better you can decide who should stand up for you in government.
3. Search
Looking up a sample ballot for your address is the easiest way to conduct a search about the candidates you need to learn about. It’s not very helpful to distract yourself with all the political discussions when you don’t even know who’s running in your district.
4. Check
Read up and check on the candidates now! See who fits best with what you want to see in government. Once you’ve researched your ballot, spreading out and looking at other districts and states could be helpful to see whom the candidates associate with and endorse. We know the candidates in different levels of government will often associate publicly and belong to the same public groups to spread their message. Association is a powerful force when marketing and that sort of branding doesn’t come easy. Reputations matter, both in politics and in marketing.
5. Vote!
This is my favorite step. Go out to your voting place and fill in your ballot. Don’t forget to grab a sticker and share it online!
-Rachel Montesinos Jorro
IMC Hawks Blog 