Get Out the Vote! Guidelines
Send the guidelines following guidelines to your voting finalists so they can promote themselves (and your crowdsourcing project) at this stage!
- Be proud to ask someone to vote for you-- after all, you are a finalist! It is likely the only way you are going to win the prize. Keep your eyes on the prize. Sometimes, the competition can be so fierce that the winner is determined by a single vote. Do everything you can to get as many votes as you can while still adhering to the terms and conditions of the voting process.
- Have all your team members share the HeroX page on their social media feeds, soliciting readers to go vote for you. In your social media posts, include the title of your submission, the HeroX URL, and, if a photo is attached to your entry, include the same photo in your social media outreach. There are numerous entries up for voting; you want your voters to be able to quickly find your entry among them and vote for it.
- Have all your team members like and/or comment on each other’s social media posts that were just posted in 1, above. An efficient way to do this is to copy the permalink URLs from each of the posts, paste them all in the same document or email, and share them with your team. Make it easy for them and you’ll get better results.
- Send an outreach email to any subscription lists you manage that are relevant to the crowdsourcing project and/or your entry. As in Step 1, include the entry title, HeroX URL and any imagery that can help identify your entry when your voter goes to vote for your entry. You could also include permalink URLs to your social media posts, soliciting recipients to like and share them. Be direct and clear in what you want recipients to do.
- Make a solicitation video inviting viewers to go vote for you and share it on your social media feeds. Have your team share it as well. This has the benefit of humanizing your solicitation. If the viewer senses the honesty and authenticity in your request, they may go vote for you based on that alone.
- Plan a live event that attracts prospective voters. At the event, provide attendees with the ability to vote for your entry. Produce physical promotional materials with voting instructions that attendees can take with them when they leave.
- Produce physical promotional materials with voting instructions for your team to hand out to anyone they meet in person.
- Share these guidelines with your team members and meet with your team to explore the various ways you can get out your voters. Ask your team members for their ideas and what they can bring to the table. Create a strategy plan to take advantage of all the opportunities that are available to you.
