Back on 24 August I received my dinner invitation from ‘friend’ Hillary Clinton. Actually, of course, it was a pitch to offer up my contact info to go into a draw that might win me dinner with the candidate on the campaign trail …

Despite its cheesiness, I took it as a reminder for my ‘Top Do’ list … suggest to Agitator readers that you sign on to the Clinton digital campaign extravaganza so as to witness online fundraising and engagement at its most intense. The thought being that you might learn something.

About ten days later, I’ve discovered what you will learn — a lot about what NOT to do!

#1 on the list — please don’t harass people to death. I’ve gotten at least five additional emails over that period. I appear to be so close to Hillary that I get a message every other day. Let me note here that, to my knowledge, I’ve never previously indicated any interest in the Hillary campaign or any desire to communicate with it.

[Roger, you haven’t signed me up, have you? All these messages are coming to my Agitator email address!]

As far as I’m concerned, all these messages are spam. I guess some digital maven in the campaign is thinking that maybe if I pass on the dinner sweepstakes they can get me hooked instead with a trip to Disney World pitch … or some other gimmick.

My latest email from Hillary conveyed an e-mail newsletter called The H Feed. Technique-wise, it’s fine … nicely conceived and executed.

So I guess I have to say that there are indeed lessons to learn from digital Hillary — good ones and bad. What you might learn from the next year of digital Hillary is excellent technical execution, with bursts of admirable creativity, but at the service of an unsound, off-putting communications strategy. You be your own judge.

I caution that if you sign-up to inflict Hillary’s digital campaign upon yourself for purely ‘professional education’ reasons, bear in mind that political campaigns tend to follow ‘scorched earth’ strategies. That is, they take for granted they will offend (burn through) many people along the way, but don’t really care (hopefully just not 50% + 1). Therefore, I can count on being harassed by the Hillary digital team right through to the end of the campaign, whether I respond or not over the next 14 months. I wager they’ll never give up on me.

In contrast, I hope your nonprofit’s digital strategy is predicated on relationship building over the long term. You’re not planning to disappear from the scene next November, are you?

Tom

P.S. For the curious: https://www.hillaryclinton.com/get-the-feed/

P.P.S Want to know exactly how much email campaigning is going on? Read here. Hillary’s  team spit out 206 email campaigns in August.