What about Alex? Since the writ was dropped in August, CBA staff, members and interested stakeholders have been tweeting, linking, sharing and otherwise getting the word out about our election strategy, designed to make equal justice an issue in the 42nd federal election.
It’s the first time the association has tried this sort of strategy – focusing on a key issue, and developing a social media narrative around it. In this case, we created nine avatars, all named Alex, all of whom were experiencing a particular legal problem, and started tweeting #whataboutalex whenever we could make a natural link between campaign announcements and access to justice issues.
We also created an engagement kit, full of facts and figures which members could use to inform themselves and quiz candidates on their party’s stance on the issue.
While none of the parties made equal justice a central theme of the election, we were successful in creating awareness of and interest in our campaign, as demonstrated by measurable growth in online engagement, particularly spurred by the leaders’ debates in September.
As with anything new, CBA Election Strategy version 1.0 is a test, meant to be improved upon. We’ve learned a number of important things that we’ll be able to apply next time.
If you’ve been participating in our campaign, we thank you for joining us. If you haven’t, we’d like to know what we could have done differently to engage you. Either way, drop us a line at equaljustice@cba.org.
But now comes the most important part: If you haven’t already exercised your franchise in an advance poll, check out the parties’ positions on equal justice, then get out and vote, and then settle in on Oct. 19 for exciting coverage of an election that many have said all along is too close to call.