Ready for the Council elections '23 with the Election Monitor
The Islands Council elections will be held on March 15, 2023! Political parties are targeting social media more than ever. Deputies, in turn, want to capitalize on the achievements of recent years. Interest groups want to put their key subjects on the agenda. Residents and businesses think: “why aren't you talking about […]?”. How nice would it be if you had a monitoring dashboard that automatically provides smart insights and alerts about the conversation that takes place 'outside'? With the Election Monitor this is possible and you have real-time and continuous access to relevant reports. In this blog you can read how the Election Monitor can help. Before, during and after election time.
What is the Election Monitor?
The Election Monitor is a real-time dashboard within OBI Engage in which all relevant and current themes related to the elections come together. It gives you a complete picture of what is going on 'outside'. As a council clerk and communication advisor, you can therefore better anticipate everything that is going on in the municipality around the elections:
- everything that goes right and wrong in the election process
- local issues that should not be missing in the voting aid
The Election Monitor consists of various (customized) reports. You decide which reports are needed for the right insight and easily share them internally by e-mail. Groups and councilors can decide for themselves which reports they want to view and in what frequency: daily, weekly, monthly.
In the run-up to the elections: help parties get started ...
It has become very common for communication departments of municipalities: monitoring what is going on in the outside world. This is not always an easy task for a council clerk, while monitoring media and social media during election time has many advantages. The registry can help the participating parties with their campaigns like no other. This can be done by actively searching media and social media for hot topics, political discussions, online conversations from and about parties and candidate councillors, concrete questions, complaints and initiatives from residents and the needs of opinion makers.
Without getting involved in political choices, the registry plays its natural role: as a supporter of parties in everything necessary to regain confidence in local democracy. The great thing is: you don't have to wait until March 2023, monitoring provides valuable insights in the run-up to the elections.
Tips for boosting attendance
In addition to putting the right themes on the agenda and determining positions, the Election Monitor also helps to determine where it is best to place turnout messages. Think, for example, of a call from the Governor to vote or a referral to the local voting aid! The reports provide insight into which local village squares are used to discuss local politics and which key figures play a role in this.
These insights help you, together with the council clerk, to place your messages for attendance promotion exactly there, where locally relevant issues are discussed online. You can already fill the voting guide with it!
The Election Monitor for a smooth election process
After the turn of the year, the lukewarm phase quickly changes into the warm phase and the hot phase of the last weeks before the Council elections. In this phase, the Election Monitor provides insight into everything that affects the voting process. Think of everything that goes right and wrong with the ballot papers sent, (un)clarities in the local voting guide, the findability, accessibility and (corona) safety of polling stations and irregularities on the election days themselves.
Questions and complaints about the voting process are particularly important in order to be traced in time. Not everyone addresses them directly to the municipality, so you have to actively track them down. Having questions and signals (pro)actively answered by your webcare agents is also essential leading up to the results of the Council elections.
Real-time insight into the election subjects
During the Council elections it is possible to follow subjects that affect the citizens. What is said about a specific topic? Who takes the lead in debates? Which subjects come through in public discussions? On which social platforms and through which key figures? You can get these insights with the Election Monitor.
Insight and guidance after the elections
After the elections, when the permanent campaign starts, the Election Monitor changes into the Council Monitor. It then becomes important to follow the subjects on the agenda for the coming term of office. The agreements in the new coalitions form the basis for the Council Monitor. It contains relevant information for political groups, individual councilors and the registry, such as the hot topics after the Council elections and agenda subjects in committee and council meetings.
What insights do you get with the Election Monitor?
The possibilities are endless. It depends on what your goal is. We list seven possible reports:
- Council Buzz: What do the political groups and new local parties post (optional: and Municipal Executive)? And who is the most active or less active?
- Council commotion: What is said about political groups and new local parties?
- Issues: which issues arise and who are actively involved in them
- News: The daily news from all local media at a glance
- Frequent questions and complaints from residents on the social media channels of the municipality and other 'online message boards'
- Gems: everything that is said about important subjects on the agenda of the council meeting & committee meeting.
Be well prepared for the election time with OBI Engage!
The Election Monitor is powered by the monitoring tool of OBI4wan (OBI Engage)
Are you already an OBI Engage user? We can help you set up the Election Monitor properly. Based on your wishes, we develop standard reports and set up the searches for you. Then you can get started with this yourself. Of course we can also take care of the complete analysis and reporting for you.
Not using OBI Engage yet? Then we would be happy to look at your wishes for a tailor-made proposal. Knowing more? Leave your details and we will discuss the possibilities with you.