What other campaign materials might I need?

If you want to reach as many voters as possible, you might need to engage with them in a variety of different ways. These are some of the things you might want to think about.

Do you want to use the materials provided by the States? If so, you will need:

  • Content for a two-page manifesto (in one of five possible templates)
  • A script or outline for a 3-minute video, and
  • Content for a candidate page on the Elections website

There is more information about how to prepare for each of these in the official candidates’ guide, towards the end of the document.

Do you want somewhere candidates can find out more about you? If so, you might want:

  • A separate personal manifesto (online-only, or printed)
  • A personal website

Do you want to drop something through people’s letterboxes, or have something to hand to people you meet face-to-face? If so, that could be:

  • A separate personal manifesto (as above)
  • A postcard or calling card, telling people where they can find out more about you

Do you want to connect with people on social media? If so, you might want to set up accounts on:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • or any other platform you’re comfortable with

Do you want a variety of ways of connecting with people online? If so, you might consider:

  • A personal website (as above)
  • A blog
  • Graphics with your key messages – you can post these on social media
  • Audio recordings
  • Videos
  • Livestream events

Do you want anything visual? If so, how about:

  • Posters (think about where these might be displayed, and how big they’d need to be)
  • Banners (if you’re arranging a face-to-face event, for example)
  • Something more creative?

There are probably plenty of other things I have forgotten about, but hopefully this is a good core of campaign materials to get you thinking. You won’t use all of these – some of them are more costly and time-consuming than others, for little gain in terms of impact, so if you have a limited budget, don’t try to do all of this! Focus on a few things, do them well, and take advantage of every free opportunity (media supplements, hustings and face-to-face events, and so on) to raise your profile.

Go back to Getting Into Guernsey Politics
Go back to Section 1.2: Getting Elected
Register to Vote

How do I write something people will read?

I wish I knew!

I try to write in everyday language, and to avoid technical terms if there’s a simpler alternative. Normally, it doesn’t sound condescending, just conversational.

When it comes to your manifesto, you’re going to have a lot to say, in a very small space. Keep it short. Don’t make people wade through paragraphs of fluff to get to your point – if they’ve got a hundred manifestos to read, they might just not bother with yours.

You can break text up with bullet points and internal headings. You can put key words and phrases in bold text, but have a good look at how that appears on the page – sometimes it works well, and sometimes it looks silly.

I find it helpful to use questions as sub-headings (as you can probably tell!). It is a good way of telling people upfront what the purpose of your paragraph is, and drawing them in to the answer. That might not be a great format for a manifesto – if I remember rightly, it’s been tried before and didn’t go down too well – but it might be helpful for your website.

If you have time, you might want to run your writing past a couple of friends, and ask for their impressions. You don’t have to change everything they suggest – it’s your writing, after all – but it might be helpful to have a sense-check before releasing it into the wild!

Go back to Getting Into Guernsey Politics
Go back to Section 1.2: Getting Elected
Register to Vote

How do I make my manifesto accessible to everyone?

Start by making it a priority. This means that you will consciously think about accessibility in all you do. You might not get it perfect, but you’ll do a much better job than candidates who aren’t even considering it.

There is some information on making your campaign accessible in the official candidates’ guide (pages 20-21), together with links to more information. Local charity Access For All* has some great guidance on making accessible websites, printed material and videos.

If you are using social media, there may be ways to make your account more accessible for disabled voters – for example, by writing captions for pictures you post, so visually-impaired people can enjoy them too.

You might be able to find information about improving accessibility under your Account Settings or somewhere obvious, or you might have to google your social media platform + “accessibility” to find it! (The irony of making accessibility information obscure is not lost on me…)

The benefit of searching the internet for social media accessibility tips, instead of being able to find it easily on the platform itself, is that you will probably also come across information from disabled social media users* explaining what works well for them. Read this and learn from it, as much as you can.

What I did on my manifesto and my website – which mostly boils down to clean presentation, large font size, and writing in plain English to the best of my ability – was really all I did in terms of accessibility. There is a lot more that you can do if you want to. I didn’t use videos as part of my campaign, but if you are doing video or audio clips online, do try and make sure there’s a transcript or subtitles available for people who need them.

One thing I wanted to do, but lacked the confidence to, was to write a one-page easy read version of my manifesto, which could have been tucked inside the main document, for the benefit of people with learning disabilities, people with dementia, and anyone else who found the longer manifesto difficult to make sense of. It’ll be different this time – you probably won’t be producing a separate manifesto anyway – but I’ve mentioned it because I regretted not doing it, and you might want to do better.

Finally, apart from Lilita Kruze, who stood in the last Election, there have been very few candidates who’ve been able to communicate with voters here whose first language is something other than English. But if you’ve got a couple of key messages, what about making them available in different languages on your website? It might not be easy to get a reliable translation at short notice (please don’t use an online translation tool!), so this might not be feasible, but it’s another angle to think about if you are considering how best to make your campaign accessible to everyone.

~

* I mentioned that you might be able to get advice on accessibility from voluntary groups, and from people who share their expertise on social media. Although this is freely available, if you find it useful (and if you can afford to do so), you might want to consider making a donation (in the case of individuals, take a look at whether they have a patreon account or similar) by way of thanks. These are uncertain economic times for everyone, and little courtesies can make a difference.

Go back to Getting Into Guernsey Politics
Go back to Section 1.2: Getting Elected
Register to Vote