Douglas Alexander on the ‘word of mouth’ election

By Alex Smith / @AlexSmith1982

Interviewed in the Guardian last month, Labour’s general election co-ordinator Douglas Alexander (@DouglasGE10) outlined the ‘word of mouth’ strategy that underpins his campaign team’s approach:

Revealing that Labour has been in discussion with the Obama team for over a year, he said: “Their key campaigning insight in an age of cynicism about politicians is word of mouth. The Conservatives are fighting a broadcast election in a networked age. What we are going to offer is not a one-way communication, but one-to-one communication.

“Obama better understood community organisation and peer-to-peer communication than any recent candidate and we are applying that lesson.”

Alexander has returned to this concept in an email and video sent to Labour supporters this afternoon. “Members of social networks, whether that is the book club, the coffee morning, the sports and social clubs, or whether it’s being online, each one of us has a role to play in communicating Labour’s message”.

In a cutting reference to the Conservative’s use of paid advertising he remarks “it’s people that win elections – not posters”:

Such tactics are already paying dividends with over 100,000 face-to-face conversations with voters every single week – three times the number in the run up to the 2005 general election. You can get ready to participate right now by:

* Following Labour’s Twitter feed
* Joining the Facebook page
* Downloading the application for your iPhone
* For members (sign up here), you can join Labour’s social network Membersnet

You can also keep up to date with the latest video output from the party on Labour’s YouTube channel.