Common Political PR Practices

Public relations and politics remain closely knit in today’s campaigns, with candidates hiring extensive PR staffs or working with PR agencies. Here are a few of the common practices that almost all political campaigns use.

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• Spinning

• There’s almost always information to spin in political public relations. Spin can involve the presentation of particular facts that support a candidate’s position and discredit an opponent’s opinion. It can involve downplaying a mistake or making an apology or denial. Spinning often includes misdirection or diversion in an attempt to keep the reputation of a candidate intact.

While spinning may sound dirty, it’s commonplace in political campaign strategies. Many political debates feature a “spin room” where campaign leaders try to use the media to spin the outcome in their favor. Campaign officials often appear on news outlets and conduct interviews intent on spinning.

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• Platform Messaging
  All candidates have a platform, or a set of beliefs and goals they have for the office they’re pursuing. The platform serves as the base for all messaging. Candidates often put out policy papers or give speeches related to their platform. A strong platform of core tenets and beliefs helps PR professionals spread the word.
  A universally used form of platform messaging is the “stump speech.” This standard speech is developed for candidates to hit on their basic beliefs and reasons why they are running. This speech is repeated often at campaign events with slight variation, allowing more and more voters to hear the same message based on the same platform.

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• Media Relations and Engagement
  For any political candidate, media exposure is critical in a lot of ways. It allows a politician to reach a large audience, especially one that can be targeted to improve standing. Public relations professionals are often charged with organizing media engagements and ensuring that their candidate’s public profile stays strong.
  This is especially helpful when a campaign is trying to target a particular subset of voters. If a candidate is struggling among younger voters, an interview with an outlet particularly popular among youth might be an idea. If a candidate is attempting to court a particular geographic area, appearing on a regional television or radio show can be beneficial.
  Due to the influence it has with voters, public relations is among the leading political campaign strategies.

Digital Public Relations
Social media and the Internet have added a new layer to public relations and political campaigns. Candidates need a social media strategy to keep them in the minds of voters. For example, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been creating easy-to-share social media posts to describe her student loan policies. Candidates are paying more attention to bloggers as a part of their media engagement strategy. Social media and the digital space will continue to be of critical importance to the PR strategies for campaigns.