Candidate manifesto and campaigning tips
The basics
Ensure your manifesto is truthful, well informed and sincere. You are a student at Christ Church and nobody is more suited for this role than you. You are unique and your experiences matter. Take care to ensure all basic grammar and spelling is covered, and that your manifesto is straight to the point, aim to make it one A4 page long to keep people's interest. Remember our voting is online, and the first thing a voter will see is your photo - students want to put a face to a name so ensure you upload a clear photo of yourself.
What should I include?
Think about your own views and experiences - what is driving you to go for this role? Be sure to speak to friends and colleagues and find out what they want from their next sabbatical officer. Research your points, remember the CCSU website is full of officer reports, blogs and useful pages you can utilise to back up your points. Be sure to state your vision for the role and what you hope to achieve.
What should I avoid?
It is not a winning strategy to campaign negatively or slander a current sabbatical officer or another candidate in the election, focus on your own campaign and use positive language! Do not make promises you cannot keep - for example, promising 50p pints in The Lounge is highly unlikely to become a reality. It is also important to remember to base your manifesto around the role you are going for, remember to check the role description and ensure you are going for the right role.
Campaigning
Raising awareness
It’s simple, the candidate with the most votes will win. So you want to raise awareness of your profile online. Remember to speak to all your friends and colleagues as every vote counts. If you are a member of a society and you feel they are already supporting another candidate, asking to be their secondary choice can really make a difference in the preferential voting system. There are three days of voting: aim to cover online coverage to cover as many students as possible, asking for retweets and sharing Facebook posts can really boost your campaign.
Social media
Use of social media is really popular during elections. Tell your contacts why you would be a great candidate; get people to change their profile picture to a message to encourage their contacts to vote for you, upload pictures, start a group or a page etc. See if you can get your name trending on Twitter, create your own webpage, use QR codes, whatever you think will reach out to your fellow students.
Make a film
It’s increasingly common for candidates to create a quick movie showing themselves talking about why they would be the best to put on Facebook, YouTube or other handy places . Some candidates have sung along to favourite songs or copied famous movie scenes.
Branding
Create a ‘brand’ unique to you, whether it’s a slogan, a colour, or a design that is easily recognisable will keep you in peers’ minds when it comes to voting. Remember the key point from manifesto writing is to be clear and concise - keep this in mind when speaking to people and sharing online - make it easy for people to decipher what you are about. Bullet points work better than a 5 page dissertation!
Timing
Use your time wisely: spending thirty minutes with one student who has already told you they are backing their friend isn't going to change their mind. Keep your interactions polite and quick and most importantly EXPECT RESPECT. Respect your peers’ boundaries and campaign fairly without hassling people - this won’t gain you any votes! It could be useful to create your own campaign team to reach more groups of people. Remember to stay positive and confident, not every encounter will be positive but keep going! Focus on the positive encounters you do have.