Project Title: Digital Media and Marketing for Melissa McDonald’s City Council Campaign
Background
In 2023, we were hired by Melissa McDonald, a city council member at large fro Greeley, Colorado, to provide digital media and marketing services for her city council campaign. By the time the client contacted us, at least one major opponent had already been campaigning for a couple months. We had roughly two months to build the candidate’s digital presence and we were confident in our ability to help her run a successful campaign that ended with a win!
Project Goals
The specific goals of the project, as outlined by our client, were to set up a simple website for her campaign and use social media, including boosted posts and advertisements, to gain a broader reach as she canvassed locally.
As always, we had goals beyond what our client presented. As consultants on her campaign, we aimed to exceed her expectations by not only promoting a digital presence for her during the campaign, but also helping guarantee her a win!
Length of Project
The client hired us onto this project in early September and we carried out tasks related to the campaign through the announcement of election results in early November. Overall, we spent roughly ten weeks providing digital media and marketing services on this contract.
Associated Tasks
To achieve the goal of a digital presence for our client, we began with gathering all the information and assets we needed to start drafting an SEO-friendly website. That meant gathering information on her platform, any endorsements she had, a headshot to use for graphics, and any logos she had already created. With this information and the associated digital files in hand, we began with the website, which would set the stage for branding her campaign.
After the website was finalized—pending any new endorsements or announcements that would be added during the campaign—we built out a set of social media graphics for our client to review and approve. With our client’s approval, we began scheduling daily weekday posts on the Facebook and Instagram accounts we set up on her behalf.
Then, we continued using our social media knowledge to interact with local businesses and organizations on Facebook and Instagram to gain more organic followers and engagement with the posts. We also set up the client’s Meta Business Account to allow for political advertisements, ensuring our ability to boost posts and run ads to reach a targeted audience.
Once everything was set up and posts were scheduled, daily tasks for this project included the following:
- Monitoring and responding to comments and direct messages
- Communicating any important comments or messages back to our client
- Engaging with local business and organizations on Facebook and Instagram to expand the campaign’s reach
- Posting extra content provided by the client (e.g., announcements of appearance and photos at community events)
- Monitoring boosted posts and ads placed on Facebook and Instagram
During various points throughout the campaign, we also provided graphic design services, including designing a flier for events and a post card to mail via USPS.
Project Deliverables
In the end, we provided the following deliverables to our client: an originally designed website, flier, and post card along with a fully managed Facebook and Instagram account.
Website: https://www.melissa4greeley.com
Facebook Account: https://www.facebook.com/Melissa4Greeley
Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/melissa4greeley/
Inside the Sociology
We like to end each project report with a brief reflection on how sociology enabled the successful completion of the project. For this particular contract, we were able to use our knowledge in sociology to craft a digital campaign that would resonate with a broad audience of constituents.
To do that, we used what we know about social problems, and how they are constructed in the mainstream discourse, to craft copy for the website and social media that would be inviting, rather than polarizing. Our sociological knowledge and skills also allowed us to see the larger connections between our client’s major platform focuses and pressing social issues. That meant we were able to create copy to showcase those connections for voters, making the campaign more transparent.
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed getting to use our sociological imaginations to secure a win for our client while flexing our knowledge of social issues!
