The data below comes from Serbia. The pattern does not. Every campaign I've worked with on four continents has arrived at the same wrong conclusion about young voters, and arrived at it the same way: by putting the money where the campaign staff already spends its own time. The specific numbers here are Serbian, from an Ipsos tracker this July. But the shape of them — a generation gap that runs straight through the middle of the platform mix, and a level of distrust that no amount of reach can buy through — is the same in Nairobi, in Zagreb, in Budapest. What follows is the part most parties skip: reading the numbers before writing the message. “Young people aren't interested in politics or in joining parties.” In Serbian political life that sentence gets delivered with a weary sigh, as a premise nobody expects to change. From experience I know they are interested, and more than campaign headquarters assume. What they won't be is free labor putting up posters, or extras f...

  1.      No internal digital department   Any modern political party would be remiss to not have its in-house digital section. In the age of ever-growing digital media, political parties need to have a staff of digital professionals that can help them stay ahead of the competition. All of the party's online activities, including outreach to voters and content creation, should be managed by this team. They must also be adept at using digital tactics to further the party's agenda. Political parties in the modern day need to develop digital sections if they want to compete. This team needs to be able to come up with interesting material for party members and think of fresh ways to reach out to potential voters. They should also be able to track the success of their digital marketing campaigns and adjust as needed. When a political party has its digital department, it can better adapt to the rapidly shifting nature of online discourse. This team needs the ability t...