Main social media mistakes in political parties:

1. No in-party digital department
2. No social media strategy
3. No one tracking results
4. Thinking that the party must be on all social networks
5. Thinking each social network is the same
6. Avoiding, deleting, and negative comments
7. Spamming – mass share content
7. Not engaging with followers
8. Not targeting party target
9. No human touch
10. An excessive amount of party/president promotion
11. Buying followers
12. Not posting daily
13. Unproved Content
14. Not using paid promotional tools
15. Using foul language

 

How long does the transformation of a political party take?

“Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years.” Gates’s Law

Do you remember the words of that old Bond song by Louis Armstrong, “We Have All the Time in the World”? In politics, nobody says this, ever. Politics is often a fight with time, in time, against time. Long-term plans often get crushed by unforeseen events. Tactics beat strategies. Generally, there is too little time for everything–anything that does not immediately advance the interests of the party and its leadership is at risk of getting sidetracked. This makes one question even more pressing: how long does a party transformation take?

For companies, the acute phase of a critical turnaround is around 1.5 years; more comprehensive transformations take up to 5 years. But in companies, at least for some time, decision-making can be centralized and execution directed top-down. This does not make corporate transformations necessarily better, but quicker.

Transformations in Government take longer - up to 20 years, close to a generation (just think of education in many countries).

Parties somehow fall between companies and Government in terms of timescale. There are two axes to consider: the age and size of the party; and the depth of the transformation. Younger and smaller parties are quicker to transform, in contrast to older and bigger parties; a shallow transformation is quicker than a deep one.

A “Shallow Transformation” is limited to more superficial or partial aspects of the party: a rebranding, a change in communication style, a partial programmatic repositioning, a change in key personnel, or a combination of those things.

The temptation for any party is to stop there, particularly if success at the voting booth returns quickly. The risk with such an approach, however, is long-term. Underlying issues do not get fixed and may come back to bite the party later.

A “Deep Transformation” encompasses the core aspects of a party: its mindset, strategy, program, culture, structure, and key delivery processes. While riskier in the short term, as they do not produce quick and easy fixes, deep transformations hold the promise of a long-term payoff.

The hardest transformations are for older and bigger parties in Government. In such a situation, the party is only the third priority, after the Government and the Parliamentary group; as the party is in power, there may be no obvious crisis, no burning platform. The encroaching complacency increases inertia, and resistance to change.

A Deep Transformation of an old and big party in power therefore may take 10 years. Consequently, time is one big factor why deep transformations of old and big parties often fail. Most party leaders do not last 10 years.

In politics, with its comparably rapid turnover of staff, and with all the brutal pressure in the daily arena, staying on a transformation target for as long as 10 years poses a severe continuity challenge. Expectation management is exceedingly hard. Even the 3-5 years for smaller and younger parties afford a high amount of discipline, strong leadership, and smart process design.

So, while the number of failed corporate transformations is around 70% - for political parties, while there are no solid statistics, I would put the number closer to 90%. It is much easier for the party leadership to satisfy themselves with the small changes they can get away with, before selling a shallow transformation as a deep one (which comes back to bite them -or their successors- later).

True transformational leadership, however, sometimes means planting trees under whose shade one does not expect to sit. And this is why, in the end, some pull it off.

Sapleli smo se... 

Sapleli smo se jedno o drugo u najboljim tradicijama bizarnih slučajnosti početaka velikih ljubavi.

 

Ušao sam u njen život sa jasnom jednokratnom namerom. Ništa komplikovano, ništa planski, vođen onom specifičnom vrstom adrenalina zbog koje se ljudi često pokaju.

Ostao sam duže na žurci nego što je bilo očekivano i neobjašnjivo dugo je gledao u oči to veče. Veče u kojem se po protokolu od mene očekivalo nešto skroz drugačije. Bila je zbunjena poput iznenadno pokisle pudlice. I ja sam bio. Ne pudlica. Zbunjen. Samo sam rekao: Ti znaš da ovo nije pametno...

Bila je proizvod mog defektnog rezonovanja. Najlepše žensko koje sam ikada video, sićušna, preslatkih malih stopala kojima povremeno poskakuje kada negde žuri. Dovoljno mlađa da autentično bude impresionirana glupostima koje sam u to vreme dnevno izbacivao. 

I patetika je počela rano. Odmah. 
Brojali smo dane a ako se dobro sećam dugo mi je trebalo da joj kažem "volim te".

Imala je jedno od onih slatkih imena nad čijim se proročkim svojstvima zaprepastite. Kako je neko mogao toliko pogoditi i nazvati je tako ispravno?

Većina moje dnevne intelektualne rutine otišla je dođavola tih dana. "Ljubavi", "Mili", "Živote". Pozivi za dobro jutro i duge rekapitulacije za laku noć. Razgovori u kojima se veza prekida jedino kada mobilnom telefonu nestanu baterije.  
Radilo se o čežnji, nerealnim projekcijama zajedničkih budućnosti i sličnim vrstama zabluda. 
Ne znam da li sam u tim trenutcima više voleo nju ili zablude.

Bila je toliko ženstvena, toliko opijajuće i svesno zavodljiva i tako se bahato uvlačila pod kožu.
 Da. Gledao sam je kako spava, slušao je sa nesimuliranom pažnjom i već jednom poklonio svet. 

Tog četrnaestog februara pre nekoliko godina plan je umalo propao. Neka budala na poslu je iznervira i viđenje samnom joj se pretvori u mučenje. Htela je jorgan preko glave. Nisam se dao sabotirati.

Sto u restoranu sa pogledom na Beograd bio je rezervisan, pare nikada nisu bile problem, sveća na stolu je bila
 obezbeđena. Kada si hrabar desi ti se onaj kliše iz retardiranih sportskih analogija - sreća te prati. Vino dobismo gratis.

U kolima sam uspeo da je ubedim da u stvari idemo na sarajevski ćevap.

Malo je reći da sam je oborio sa nogu. Patetika se slivala ritmom kišnih kapi tog najromanticnijeg dana u godini u tom preteatralnom trenutku. Nije pomišljala na patetiku, globalnu konzumerističku zaveru društvom nametnutog klišea i na nepotrebnu proslavu jednog najobičnijeg dana. On ju je upravo izveo na večeru.

Ne sećam se kako je veče proteklo. Sećam se da sam neromantično jeo belu vešalicu, da u WC-u nije bilo sapuna i da nisam hteo da se završi.

Cela ljubavna priča završila se prilično ružno. Ona je sve upropastila nakon čega sam ja sve upropastio. 
Uvek joj praštao, samo ponekad je gledao realno i poslednjih dana redovno nikada bio svoj. 
Meseci i godine jednog luna-parka za koga od početka znaš da će se na kraju spakovati i otići u drugi grad.

Ostao je ukus jednog predivnog dana, brojna ljubavna pisma u "sent" folderu i spisak svega što je trebalo uraditi drugačije.


Želeo sam da prema ovom danu budem religijski ciničan ali nešto mnogo volim sebe iz tih dana. 

Zato eto vam jedne priče o Danu zaljubljenih.

Đorđe Balašević - Naposletku