Virtual campaign tour.

[Barrex]

Idea: Rand does Skype tour.

Basic:
Volunteer organizes party/gathering/get-together/BBQ with a theme "Talk with Rand" in their home, backyard, local bar etc. Rand calls in via Video call and has 15 minute conversation with those who attended party. He says few things and answers few questions...


1. Campaign sends question to volunteers if they are interested in organizing party/gathering/get-together/BBQ with a theme "Talk with Rand".

2. Those who say yes and pledge that there will be more than 10 people attending get date and time when Rand will call them.

3. During party volunteer that organized party collects emails, gives promotional material, links to donate/campaign store...

4. Rand calls them and has conversation, answers few questions. It lasts 10-30 minutes.

5. Campaign conducts polls, campaign staffers answer additional questions, everyone changes Facebook&Twitter profiles to Rand picture or sign etc.

6. Offer incentive to vote and get engaged: After Rand is done campaign sends emails to those who participated with cool picture or something... for some reason people like gifts and when they receive thank you note.


Rand will do a lot of traveling. Some trips will be several hours long. While he is in the car he could do it...

For volunteers: People dont like going out of their comfort zone. Approaching other people and talking to them about politics and your candidate is not easy for most. Solution: Have a party. Having a party and inviting people to it is not outside anyones comfort zone.

Time: How much time is needed to have a speech in Iowa in front of 300 people? Rand needs to travel from Kentucky or D.C., go there, have a speech, travel to another location, have a speech, spend a night, travel back. To reach 300 people you need 48 hours? That would be 9-10 minutes per vote?

Vitrual tour:

average size of the party: 20 people
average time Rand spends: 15 min.
less than 1 min per vote

no cost for renting, travel etc. is needed...only really good internet connection.

To win Iowa candidate will probably need less than 25.000 votes. 5 months to Iowa. If Rand can do 1 hour per day in next 150 days he would reach 9000 people this way. They will be neighbors, friends, business partners and relatives of campaign volunteers. Completely new approach and completely new people that are reached. Since volunteer already knows them he can keep in touch with them and call them when it is time to vote and get engaged.


Best way to get a vote is for a candidate to speak to voters. Mailing (98% of it is not having any impact) and advertising pale in comparison. If Rand does this it could give him another advantage over other candidates, especially in Iowa where he already got strong volunteer network. He would spend far less time and resources and be 90% more effective when you consider time per vote/person ratio. Also in smaller group atmosphere is more intimate and chances for getting persons vote should be better. "Me and some of my friends just had chit-chat with Rand".




I really dislike threads where people sit in their homes as armchair generals and tell campaign what to do... and now I started one myself. :o To me (in my head) it sounded like a really cool idea. BE BRUTALLY HONEST. I dont like pandering. Why would this not work? What did I miss? What do you think?

[phill4paul]

Barrex, seems like an interesting idea but I'd have to ask myself how much downtime does Rand actually have? I would imagine when he is traveling that he is catching up on the legislation he is wanting to address, being briefed on his campaign, ect.

[FriedChicken]

I really like this idea.
It can be well documented as well (a video of the questions and answers) and people can share them on social media. It would be a pretty cool bragging right.

He can do more than one at a time I would think. The groups would just have to take turns talking to him.

The campaign may not organize this but it could be organized by supporters and an invitation sent to him. That would make for an even better media story I'd think.

[William Tell]

That would be cool.

[kbs021]

Submit this to purple pac! I like it.

[francisco]

Fantastic Idea!

Anyone know how to get this idea in front of Vincent Harris?

[Barrex]

Barrex, seems like an interesting idea but I'd have to ask myself how much downtime does Rand actually have? I would imagine when he is traveling that he is catching up on the legislation he is wanting to address, being briefed on his campaign, ect.
I was thinking about that but 15 min per conference is really little time and since there are no costs of renting hotel, hall room for crowd, travel expenses, hiring of sound and light equipment etc. it would make it worth time invested... and like i showed I believe Rand will spend less time and reach more people this way.


Submit this to purple pac! I like it.

PACs cant coordinate with campaign.

[nayjevin]

No need for volunteers to organize them. Rand just does it every 15 minutes and people sign up. Signup closes when max number of participants is reached. GoToMeeting or Hangouts or Skype or whatever, pretty sure there are some that would allow 100 people at a time, maybe much more.

[Barrex]

No need for volunteers to organize them. Rand just does it every 15 minutes and people sign up. Signup closes when max number of participants is reached. GoToMeeting or Hangouts or Skype or whatever, pretty sure there are some that would allow 100 people at a time, maybe much more.

Interesting variation. I was thinking about real gatherings and that Rand talks to group of people at that specific party from TV via Skype. That way you get them "hooked" (get their information, contacts etc.) and volunteer that invited them to the party would have much easier task of persuading them to participate and vote


Since you are moderator. Did anyone from RPF.com participate in bloggers for Rand conference calls-meetings?


P.s.

What AF did in bestest pictures thread was unholy and he should be permanently banned.

[nayjevin]

Interesting variation. I was thinking about real gatherings and that Rand talks to group of people at that specific party from TV via Skype. That way you get them "hooked" (get their information, contacts etc.) and volunteer that invited them to the party would have much easier task of persuading them to participate and vote

That has serious value. There's a possibility of blending the two. Rand only has to provide times of each, then organizers can set up watchparties for any of the available times.



Since you are moderator. Did anyone from RPF.com participate in bloggers for Rand conference calls-meetings?

I don't know. I vaguely remember a thread about that but I've been out for awhile.



P.s.

What AF did in bestest pictures thread was unholy and he should be permanently banned.

I must have missed that. Sounds like I will be either very glad or very mad that I did.

[Barrex]

That has serious value. There's a possibility of blending the two. Rand only has to provide times of each, then organizers can set up watchparties for any of the available times.

It would be cool if it happened because on paper it is superior way of "recruiting" voters based on less resources spent and more people reached in less time....


Now all that is left is to wait and see if anyone from campaign lurks in Rand Paul sub-forum. :toady:

[Mad Raven]

Well I think the hard part would be to get the grassroots to organize these.

But as far as utilizing the internet better, you're right that it's the way to go.

He's busy, so it's got to be worth it for him. It's all tradeoffs with his time. Face time physically in front of a crowd is more valuable than time spent over skype. And he's got to be convinced it isn't just a group of devoted fans who want to leech some time. But at some point voters per minute, the cost savings, and the social media potential of the young people attending, beats out that extra stop of face time with the white hairs.

The social media experts he hired hopefully are already looking into this kind of thing. If he doesn't do something like this, you've got to figure he's missing out on a big opportunity. I imagine the way to leverage it best would be some months down the road. These campaign seasons are so friggin long it's unbelievable. No wonder they need so much money.

[PCKY]

I would do a Google Hang out with some of the student chapters. Maybe to kick it off and to test the format.