Getting Started With Social Media: A Toolkit for Election Offices

A Facebook page allows organizations, businesses, and offices to share updates and connect with people. Anyone who has a Facebook account can create a page. All people who “like” your page will see the updates you post in their feed.

Go through the process of setting up a Facebook page. Steps include:

1. Sign in to an individual Facebook account
2. Scroll down the left sidebar to select “Pages.” You will have to click “See more options.” The Pages button has an orange flag symbol to the left of it.
3. Click “Create New Page.”
4. Add a page name. 
5. Type “Government Organization” as the category.
6. Include a Bio
7. Click “Next”
8. Add a website, phone number, email, hours and physical address.
9. Add photos for the background and profile.
10. Once you are finished, click “Publish.”

Posting on your Facebook page allows you to add content to your page for people who “like” your page to see. You can add simple written text, photos, or even videos.

An admin is someone who manages a Facebook page. This person is able to post on the page and edit the page settings. If you created a Facebook page, you are automatically added as an admin.

You can add additional admins by: 

1. Clicking the blue “Manage” button on your page
2. Scrolling down the left sidebar to select “Page Access”
3. Select “People with Facebook Access” to add someone as a full admin
4. Add the person who you would like to have access

People who “like” your page are those who will see the content that you post. Because of this, it’s important to have as many people in your jurisdiction as possible who like your page. All admins of the account can follow the steps below to have as many page followers as possible.

To invite people to like your page:

1. Click the blue “Manage” button on your page
2. Scroll down the left sidebar to select “Invite people to connect”
3. You will have to switch to your individual profile to invite your friends to like the page.

If your office does not yet have a social media policy, we recommend that you create one in partnership with your legal department. A social media policy can include commenting guidelines, standards for conduct on your page, etc. For an example of a social media policy, check out: Fairfax County Social Media Policy

Once you have a social media policy in place, you might need to update the permissions on your page to match your policy (e.g. if you decide that you will not allow certain vulgar language on your page).

To update the permissions on your page:

1. Go to your page site
2. Click the blue “Manage” button
3. Click “Followers and public content”
4. Update settings based on your social media policy

Two-factor authentication is a security protocol that helps ensure that you are the only person who can access your account. 

To set it up:

1. Make sure you are connected to your individual profile page. You can switch between pages by clicking the profile picture in the top right corner of the platform.
2. Once you are on your individual page, click once more on the profile photo in the top right corner and select “Settings and Privacy.”
3. Click on “Settings”
4. Click “Account Center,” which is a box on the top left side of the screen.
5. Click “Password and Security” in the left side menu
6. Select “Two factor authentication” and follow the steps to sign up.

A verified Facebook account includes a little blue checkmark next to the name of your page. This signals to users that it is an official page. Facebook goes through an approval process for pages. To sign up to have your page approved, you can follow their guidelines here.

The Facebook team includes a number of resources to support government employees. You can visit this page to read their online resources and learn how to get in touch with a staff member who provides support to government offices.

There are a number of election offices that creatively and effectively manage their Facebook pages. You can view a few of some of our favorites below:

• Indian River County, Florida: https://www.facebook.com/VoteIndianRiver/
• Charleston County, South Carolina: https://www.facebook.com/charlestonvotes/ 
• Alpine Township Hall, Michigan: https://www.facebook.com/p/Alpine-Township-Hall-61550097797032/

• Create and manage your Facebook Page (Meta)
• Brennan Center recommendations for how election officials can prepare for AI threats
• CISA election security training
• Meta Government Resources
  • Meta security
  • Getting an account verified
  • Facebook Government Help

Voting alerts allow state and local election authorities to reach their constituents with important updates about voting. WIth voting alerts, every person in your jurisdiction who follows your page will see a notification in their notification center on Facebook, which alerts them that there is timely information about the election that they should pay attention to.

Each voting alert also lives within the Voting Information Center on Facebook.

An account must be designated as a “Government Organization” or a “Public and Government Service” in order to activate voting alerts. Voting alerts cannot be set up by a page representing an individual.

You can mark a post as a voting alert if it communicates urgent, actionable information that is relevant to voters. Topics you can post about include:

1. Changes to polling locations
2. Changes to the way that people can vote
3. Rules about who is eligible to participate in elections
4. Upcoming election dates and times

1. First, make sure that you are an admin for your page. You can find how to do that in our video about setting up a Facebook page.
2. Next, select “voting alerts”. If it is your first time, you might have to activate this option.
   1. Go to your Facebook Page and click Create post.
   2. In Add to your post, click the ellipses (…).
   3. Click Local Alert or Voting Alert.
      1. If you do not see this option, you need to turn on voting alerts.
         1. To do so, navigate to this link.
         2. Review the introduction screen and click Next.
         3. Review the best practices and guidelines and click Next.
         4. On the final screen, click Turn on Local Alerts or Turn on Voting Alerts.
3. Once you’ve selected that you want to create a voting alert, you will be prompted to:
   1. Select an alert location
      1. You can select a city, a county, a state, or even a custom, targeted local based on a dropped pin
   2. Select alert duration
      1. Options range from 1 to 24 hours
      2. This is the amount of time that this will be a local alert, but the post remains published after the alert period has ended on your page and in the voting information center.
4. Send your voting alert!

1. How to set up a Facebook video
2. Overview from Meta about voting alerts
3. Application to set up voting alerts

X (previously known as Twitter) is a fast-paced social media platform, with short, concise content that grab users’ attention quickly.  X is known for short posts of up to 280 characters that are shared with followers. 

Posts may contain photos, videos and links and you can include hashtags so more people can find your posts. X is one of the most popular social media platforms out there, with over 500 million monthly active users and more than 200 million daily users worldwide.

X is often used as a customer or user-facing service tool by organizations and companies. Your office can benefit from posting election cycle updates and details and it’s easy for voters to ask you questions on the platform. Since it’s all publicly visible, other voters can also have insight into your responses to those questions. X is also a dynamic platform, allowing for you to repost and uplift election information from other official sources (e.g., the SoS) and organizations (e.g., EAC). 

To set up you account:

1. Go to X.com/signup
2. Click “Create account”.
   1. Enter your account name and your office email.
      1. Ideally this would be an official .gov address.
   2. Choose a date of birth older than 13 years ago.
3. Check whether you’d like to track where you see X content across the web
4. Authenticate your account by solving the captcha.
5. X will immediately send you an email with a one-time code to verify your email address. Paste in the code sent to you.
6. Choose a password.
7. Set your profile picture.
   1. Ideally, this is your office logo.
8. Choose a username.
9. Turn on Notifications.
10. Select your language.
11. Select 3 random topics.
12. Follow a random account – you can unfollow it later.

To customize your profile, go to your profile page and click “Edit Profile”.

• Choose a banner. You can think of this as a billboard or window display that you can use to share what’s timely, for example a reminder to register to vote.
  • We recommend that you update this regularly during election cycles as information on different aspects of the electoral process becomes relevant for voters.
  • Visit VoterCast.com to quickly generate ready-to-use graphics, personalized to your jurisdiction’s details.
• Add a Bio.
• Add your location.
• Add your website.

Posting on your X account allows you to add content to your page for people who follow your account to see. You can add simple written text, photos, or even videos.

• Tips to post
  • Posts can be up to 280 characters
  • If using hashtags, limit to 1-2 per Post
  • Avoid writing in all-caps
  • Consider using emojis at the end of text to add emotion (e.g., 💪 or 🗳️ or 📬)
  • Include a clear call-to-action where applicable (e.g. “Register by visiting [URL]”)

You can pin a post to your profile so that when others visit your profile, it is the first post they will see. We recommend regularly updating this as different posts become relevant to voters at different points in the election cycle.

• From your profile, find the post you’d like to pin.
• Click or tap the  icon located at the top of the post. 
• Select Pin to your profile.
• Click or tap Pin to confirm.

Now that your account is set up, you can add additional admins to your account. These are the people who are able to post updates on the account and respond to Direct Messages. Note, they must have an X account of their own.

To do this:

• Navigate to (…) More > Settings and Privacy > Security and Account Access > Delegate > Invite a Member 
• Assign a role to the member.
  • Admins can invite others to access the account as admins or contributors and can take action on behalf of the delegate account (post, repost, Direct Message, like, etc.), schedule posts, delete posts, create lists, and build collections.
  • Contributors cannot invite others to access the account, but can take action on behalf of the delegated account.
• Click “Send invite”. 
• Once you have invited someone, they’ll receive an email and an invitation in the same “Delegate” section of their profile on X.

Because X is a social media platform, you can follow other election-related accounts through your own. X will provide you recommendations on who to follow, but you can also search for individual accounts by clicking “Explore” and searching for an account’s handle, going to their profile, and clicking “Follow”. You can see content that the accounts you follow post on your “Home” feed, under “Following”.

To see a list of accounts you follow and who follow you, navigate to your profile. These will be under your Bio under “Following” and “Followers”.

• Follow and engage with other accounts’ content, like the Secretary of State’s official account
• Help voters find you by sharing your @handle on your website, email signatures, and the bios of your other social media accounts.
• Engaging with other Posts helps build relationships and increase the discoverability of your account.
  • Like, @mention and repost other official election posts by governmental and reputable non-governmental and non-profit organizations
  • Reply to voters and users that engage with your posts
  • Be responsive to Direct Messages your account receives from voters and other users

If your office does not yet have a social media policy, we recommend that you create one in partnership with your legal department. A social media policy can include commenting guidelines, standards for conduct on your page, etc. For an example of a social media policy, check out: Fairfax County Social Media Policy

If your social media policy allows, you can block other accounts. Blocked accounts cannot:

• Follow you
• View your posts when logged in on X (unless they report you, and your posts mention them)
• Find your posts in search when logged in on X
• Send Direct Messages to you
• View your following or followers lists, likes or lists when logged in on X
• View a Moment you’ve created when logged in on X
• Add your X account to their lists
• Tag you in a photo

To block an account from a post:

• Click the “… “ icon beside the post > Block > Select Block to confirm.

To block an account from their account profile, go to the profile page of the account you wish to block and:

• Click the “… “ icon beside the profile > Block > Select Block to confirm.

To manage and see the accounts you have blocked, go to:

• (…) More > Settings and Privacy > Privacy and safety > Mute and block > Blocked accounts.

You can also change who can tag your account on X to align with your social media policy. To do this, navigate to:

• (…) More > Settings and Privacy > Privacy and safety > Audience, media and tagging > Photo tagging 
• Here, select the option that aligns with your social media policy (e.g., Only people you follow can tag you).

When you start a new post, you can choose who will be able to reply to it if your social media policy allows you to. The default setting for posts is “Everyone can reply”. To change this:

• Clicking the globe in the post box and select from the available options:
  • Everyone (default).
  • Accounts you follow.
  • Verified accounts.
  • Only accounts you mention.

You can change this after you post by navigating to the top right of the post and tapping (…) More > Change who can reply.

If your social media policy allows, you can also hide replies that other accounts leave on your posts. This means other accounts will not be able to see the reply below your post. To do this:

• Navigate to the reply you want to hide. 
• Click the “…” icon >  Hide reply.

Two-factor authentication is a security protocol that ensures that you are the only person who can access your account. 

To set it up, navigate to:

• (…) More > Settings and Privacy > Security > Two-factor authentication 
• Choose the method you prefer, aligning it with your social media policy.

This is a little blue checkbox next to your name to signal that you are an official page. Only accounts actively subscribed to X Premium ($3/month or $32/year) are eligible to receive the blue checkmark.
Once you subscribe to X Premium, X will verify your page according to a number of settings. Check out X’s account verification page for more information about how to get your account verified.

There are a number of election offices that creatively and effectively manage their X accounts. You can view a few of our favorites below:

• San Bernardino County, CA Registrar of Voters: https://x.com/SBC_Elections
• Orange County, FL Supervisor of Elections Office: https://x.com/OCFElections 
• Maricopa County, AZ: https://x.com/MaricopaVote

• Create X Account
  • Managing your Account
• Brennan Center recommendations for how election officials can prepare for AI threats
• CISA election security training
• X Help Center

Instagram is a free social media app and photo and video sharing platform that allows users to upload, edit, and share visual content. Users can interact with your content via likes, comments, shares, and saves.

Instagram is the third most popular social media platform in the world, with over two billion monthly active users, and it has a significant impact on cultural trends. It primarily, but not exclusively, serves a younger audience than Facebook (even though they are owned by the same company, Meta).

Instagram was mainly designed to be used on a mobile phone, with certain features only available through their app. However, you can still make use of several features by logging in through a desktop.

Instagram is best suited for sharing visual graphics (photos and videos) and outreach. 

Your election office can:

• Post election cycle updates and details as they become relevant. 
• Respond to voter comments on posts and interact with voters directly through direct messaging.
• Uplift other official election accounts that post trustworthy information.

To set up your Instagram account through a desktop (with Facebook):

• Go to www.instagram.com  
• Click “Sign Up” at the bottom of the page.
• Select “Log In with Facebook”. This should be the account associated with your office’s Facebook page.
  • If you’ve already logged into your Facebook account, you should see the option to “Continue as [Name]”. 
  • If not, enter your Facebook account’s email address and password.
• Choose your Instagram account’s name, username and password.
• Follow 5 random accounts or click “Home” to skip this step. 
• Turn on your notifications.

If you signed up through a desktop, you will not have been prompted to add your profile picture through the set-up process. To do this:

• Navigate to your Profile at the bottom of the menu on the right hand side. 
• Beside your account’s username, click “Edit profile”.
• Click “Change photo” and select your office’s logo from your local computer.

To set up your Instagram account through a mobile phone (without Facebook):

• Download and open the Instagram App. 
• Tap “Create new account” at the bottom.
• Tap “Sign up with email”.
• Enter your election office’s official email address.
• Enter the confirmation code sent to your inbox. 
• Choose a password.
  • Only save your account login information if you are using a secure mobile device.
• Choose any date of birth that is 13 years old or older. 
• Choose your name and username.
• Accept Instagram’s terms of service.
• When signing up through the app, Instagram will prompt you to add your profile picture during set-up.
  • Save your office’s logo to your mobile device if you haven’t already.
  • Tap “Add picture” and “Choose from Camera Roll”.
  • Select your logo from your device’s pictures.
  • Toggle “Also share this picture as a post” off. 
  • Tap “Done”.
• We don’t recommend allowing Instagram to access your mobile phone’s contacts for security purposes.
  • Tap “Skip” when asked if you want to get suggestions for accounts to follow from your Facebook account. 
• Follow five random accounts or tap “Skip” on the top right corner. You can always follow accounts later. 

We recommend switching your account to a professional account. This allows you to leverage features like adding Contact buttons and Category labels to your profile. Most importantly, you need to have a professional account to delegate account management access to other members of your office. 

To do this:

• Navigate to your Profile at the bottom of the menu on the right hand side. 
• Beside your account’s username, click “Edit profile”.
• On the left-hand menu, scroll down to the section “For professionals” and click “Account type and tools”. 
• Click “Switch to professional account” and select “Business”.
• Choose your Category label from the available set.
  • We recommend using one of the “Government” labels such as “Government organization”. 
  • Make sure the “Show category on profile” box is checked.
• Input your contact information including your email address, mobile phone, and office address.
  • Make sure the “Show contact info on profile” box is checked. 

Navigate to your Profile at the bottom of the menu on the right hand side and click “Edit profile”. You’ll see a box to add a bio below: 

• Choose a bio that is short but communicates what content your account will host. 
• These can only be up to 150 characters.

Under “Edit profile”, navigate to the “For professionals” section and click “Professional account”.

• Make sure your email address is correct, and you are using your official office email address. 
• Choose whether you prefer your “Phone” button to direct voters to text or call you.

Instagram only allows you to add your website to your profile through its Mobile App. To do this, navigate to your profile by tapping on your profile picture on the bottom right of the screen.

• Tap “Edit profile” beside the “Share profile” button. 
• Tap “Add links” and “Add external link”. 
• Type in your office’s website URL where voters can go to find more information, and label it with a descriptive title.

Posts are permanent pieces of content that appear on your Instagram profile grid. Posts can include photos, videos, and captions, and they remain visible unless manually deleted.

Posts are ideal for long-term updates, key announcements, or any content you want voters to find when they visit your page. Engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares) are public and visible to everyone.

Unlike other social media sites, Instagram is not well-suited for adding URLs to post captions (users cannot tap on them or copy them easily). Consider including the link to your website in your bio, and specific (shortened) URLs on the graphics themselves.

Here are some tips for your posts:

• Include a clear call-to-action where applicable (e.g. “Register by visiting [URL]”)
• Write a compelling caption that leads with the most important information.
• Avoid writing in all-caps.
• Consider using emojis at the end of text to add emotion (e.g., 💪 or 🗳️ or 📬).
• Use a consistent tone.
• Keep it short and to the point.
• Encourage action with simple, direct text.

Visit VoterCast.com to quickly generate simple and effective voter outreach including posts, captions and alt-text, personalized to your jurisdiction’s details and tailored to Instagram as a platform.

Posts are organized in chronological order on your profile grid, meaning content posted earlier will appear at the bottom of the grid. To pin important posts so they always appear at the top of your grid:

• Navigate to your profile by tapping on your profile picture on the bottom right of the screen. 
• On your grid, tap on the post you want to pin.
• Tap the “…” on the top right of the post. 
• Select “Pin to profile”.

To unpin a post, follow the same process of tapping on the pinned post, the “…” icon, and tap “Unpin from your profile”. This will organize the grid so that the pinned post returns to the original chronological position it was originally in. 

Stories are temporary, short-format content (images or videos) that disappear after 24 hours. Stories are ideal for sharing immediate updates, reminders, or event announcements.

Unlike posts, engagement with stories (reactions, replies) is private and only visible to the account owner. You can also add polls or URL stickers to drive interaction.

To post a story, tap on the “+” icon at the bottom center of the screen.

• Switch from “Post” to “Story” on the bottom right menu.
• To upload a photo or video, tap the album icon in the bottom left 
• To add text, tap to add text, then you can:
  • Add emoji 
  • Adjust the text size 
  • Center, left, or right align the text 
  • Rotate and resize the text 
  • Choose a text color 
  • Change the text style 
  • Add a color background to the text 
  • Pin the text to a fixed spot in your video
• To mention someone, type @ and then enter their username 
• When you’re ready to share, tap “Your Story” in the bottom left.
• Note, stories are formatted in a 9:16 aspect ratio, so poster-style images will be more suitable than squared dimension ones.

To add a sticker to your story, tap on the icon that looks like a post-it note with a smile at the top of the screen. Here, you can choose to add a variety of stickers that voters can interact with. 

Add URL stickers to link directly to important resources, like voter registration sites or polling location finders. To add a link sticker to your story:

• Select the Link sticker, which looks like a white rectangle with the word “Link” in blue.
• Enter the URL you want to add.
• Customize the text that appears on the sticker with a descriptive title, like “Register now!”.
• Tap Done.
• Place the sticker on your story. 
• Tap the sticker to change its style or size.
• Tips for using link stickers in Instagram stories:
  • Place the link in a prominent location that’s easy to click, even on smaller screens. 
  • Avoid placing the sticker under Instagram buttons.

Polls are a fun way to engage with your followers and gather information about your audience. To add a poll sticker to your story:

• Tap the sticker icon at the top of the screen, then choose the Poll sticker from the options.
• Type your question in the Ask a question… field.
  • E.g., “How do you plan to vote?”
• Set your answer choices, or use the default Yes/No options depending on what sort of engagement you want to have with your voters. 
  • E.g., “By mail”
• Tips for creating polls: 
  • Keep it clear and concise.
  • Use visual elements.
  • Word polls in a positive light.
• You can see the results of your poll by swiping up to open the viewers list for that part of your story. 
  • You can see how many votes each option received, who voted, and what option they chose. 

Questions offer an interactive form to have voters submit questions they may want the answers to, or responses to a question you pose. To add questions stickers:

• Select the sticker icon, which looks like a square with a smiley face. 
• Choose the “Questions” sticker.
• Type in your question and customize it.
• Tap “Done” in the top right corner.
• Resize and reposition the question box.
• You can view responses by swiping up on your story. You can then post follow-up stories with answers and replies to what voters submitted to you.

Highlights are a way to save and showcase important stories on your profile permanently, even after they disappear from the regular story feed. Think of Highlights as curated collections of your best or most important stories, such as “Election Info” or “Voter Resources.”

Highlights remain visible at the top of your profile, making it easy for users to access crucial information anytime they visit your page. 

To add a story to an existing highlight:

• Navigate to your story by tapping on your profile picture at the top of the page.
• On the bottom left, tap “Highlights”.
• If you don’t already have a highlight, type in the name of your highlight (e.g., “Registration”. 
• Tap “Add”.

To create a new highlight: 

• Go to your profile.
• Tap “New”.
  • If you don’t see “New”, tap “Story highlight”.
• Enter a highlight name for your highlight, like “General Election Details” then click Next.
• Click to select the story or stories you want to add to highlights, then click Next.
• Choose a cover photo and click Done.
• You can edit your highlight at any time by tapping on the highlight, and tapping “Edit”.

Because Instagram is a social media platform, you can follow other election-related accounts through your own. Instagram will provide you recommendations on who to follow, but you can also search for individual accounts by clicking “Search” and searching for an account’s handle, going to their profile, and clicking “Follow”.

You can see content that the accounts you follow post on your “Home” feed and interact with it by liking, commenting, or saving the post.

To see a list of accounts you follow and who follow you, navigate to your profile. These will be under your Bio under “Following” and “Followers”.

Now that your account is set up, you can add additional admins to your account. Note, you will only be able to do this if you have switched to a professional account (see the section on how to switch to a professional account above). You will also need to link your account to your Facebook account to do this. 

If you have a Facebook page, you will by default also have a Meta Business Suite account. This is the platform you will use to delegate access to all your Meta accounts, including your Instagram and Facebook accounts.

First, link your Instagram account to your Meta Business Suite:

• Navigate to business.facebook.com and log in with your Facebook account’s information. 
• Click “Connect an Instagram profile” and log in with your Instagram account’s information. 
• Navigate to settings on the bottom left menu.
• Under Accounts, find Instagram accounts, click “Log in” and input your account information once more.

Then, navigate to “People” under “Users” and:

• Click “Invite people”. 
• Add the email address of the person you want to delegate access to. 
• Choose whether to allow permanent or temporary access.
• Choose the level of access you want to allow.
• Select the Instagram account in the “Assign business assets” section.
• You can always edit access by navigating back to the “People” tab in your Meta Business Suite center.

• Follow and engage with other accounts’ content, like the Secretary of State’s official account
• Help voters find you by sharing your @handle on your website, email signatures, and the bios of your other social media accounts.
• Engaging with other Posts helps build relationships and increase the discoverability of your account.
  • Like, @mention and repost other official election posts by governmental and reputable non-governmental and non-profit organizations
  • Reply to voters and users that engage with your posts
  • Be responsive to Direct Messages your account receives from voters and other users

If your office does not yet have a social media policy, we recommend that you create one in partnership with your legal department. A social media policy can include commenting guidelines, standards for conduct on your page, etc. For an example of a social media policy, check out: Fairfax County Social Media Policy

The actions below should be done only in alignment with your social media policy.

Two-factor authentication is a security protocol that helps ensure that you are the only person who can access your account. 

To set it up:

• Click More in the bottom left, then click Settings.
• Click See more in Accounts Center, then click Password and security.
• Click Two-factor authentication, then select an account.
• Choose the security method you want to add and follow the on-screen instructions.

You can turn off commenting to prevent people from commenting on an individual post. When you turn off commenting, any comments that are currently on your post will be hidden. If you turn commenting back on for a post, previous comments will be restored and people will be able to comment again.

• Click … next to your post.
• Select Turn off commenting or Turn on Commenting.

If your social media policy allows, you can delete both your and other people’s comments on content you post.  On other people’s posts, you can only delete comments that you’ve written. Hover your cursor over the comment you want to delete, then click “..” and click Delete.

When you block someone from the Instagram app, it will block their account, other existing accounts they may have or any new accounts they may create. If you choose to block someone’s account and other existing accounts they may have or create, this will not apply to other accounts of theirs that you already follow. You’ll need to block those accounts individually.

Click their username from their post in your feed or story post, or click  and search their username to go to their profile.

• Click .. in the top right, then click Block.

You can choose whether posts you’re tagged in appear on your profile automatically or manually. When you choose to add photos and videos manually, they’ll appear on your profile only after you approve them. 

By default, when someone tags a photo or video of you, it will automatically be added to your profile. To manually select the photos and videos that appear on your profile:

• Click the menu in the bottom left, then click Settings.
• Below How others can interact with you, click Tags and mentions.
• Click Manually approve tags
• Click switch off next to Tag options.
• You’ll still be notified when someone tags you in a photo or video. To add that photo or video to your profile, click the photo and then click  … in the top right.

A verified Instagram account includes a little blue checkmark next to the name of your page. This signals to users that it is an official page. Instagram goes through an approval process for pages. To sign up to have your page approved, you can follow their guidelines here.

There are a number of election offices that creatively and effectively manage their Instagram accounts. You can view a few of our favorites below:

• Santa Clara Registrar of Voters, CA: https://www.instagram.com/sccvote/ 
• Miami Dade Elections, FL: https://www.instagram.com/mdcelections/
• Maricopa County, AZ: https://www.instagram.com/maricopavote/?hl=en

• Signing Up and Getting Started
• Brennan Center recommendations for how election officials can prepare for AI threats
• CISA election security training
• Instagram Help Center
  • Getting an account verified

Email marketing campaigns are a collection of emails sent to a group in order to achieve a specific goal. Email campaigns are a no- or low-cost communication tool to get accurate information to voters when they need it.

For election offices, your email campaign goals will likely vary depending on where you are in the election cycle. As an election is getting close, you will likely want to focus on getting voters “election ready” — for example, how to request a ballot or what identification is needed at the polls. Additional campaign ideas to consider might include emails encouraging voter registration or giving updates on policies and laws that affect voters.

As with all communications to the public, it is important to refer to relevant policies, procedures, and laws when designing email campaigns. In particular, consider whether you are able to pull email addresses from voter registration records to build your email lists, or whether you need extra opt-in procedures for voters who want to stay informed.

• Keep in mind throughout this explainer that these types of campaigns are technically referred to as “marketing campaigns”, but may be more accurately described as behavior change objectives. This means that election officials may be promoting services, but not necessarily products. Instead, the goal may be to change a behavior, elicit a response, or call voters to action. This is significantly more difficult to do. Do not be discouraged if the first few emails of a campaign are not as successful as they were anticipated to be. Keep going!

Using an email header or jurisdiction logo can help polish emails with official branding. This way email recipients will know that they are receiving official election communications from a trusted source of information. If your organization does not have a properly branded email header, consider making one or simply using your organization’s seal or logo.

Be sure to include a relevant and concise subject line that lets email recipients know what to expect in the email. For example, emails that will discuss voter registration should mention “voter registration” in the subject line. While creating a fun and engaging subject line can be intriguing, ensure that you do not lose sight of the email’s main message. 

Emails should immediately explain the reason for contact. This helps increase the likelihood that the email will not only be read, but understood. Keep messaging concise and try to focus on only one topic per email. 
Don’t overwhelm the voter with information or multiple calls to action. For example, an email encouraging voters to update their information should refrain from promoting poll worker recruitment at the same time. Multiple messages in one email may confuse voters and negatively impact the engagement rate. You can always add another email to their campaign for another topic!

Not everyone checks their emails daily, so ensuring that there is an “as of” date to help provide context and additional clarity when providing data. For example, if you include voter registration numbers, you should prominently include the date that these numbers were collected, to avoid confusion.

Clearly explain what your office needs the voter to do and provide a path forward for them to follow. For example, emails encouraging online voter registration should provide links to the voter registration portal and detail and additional materials the voter should have access to in order to complete the action. 

•  A word about links! Short website links are often-times easier to type and help voters find what they need more quickly. If the link seems too long, it probably is! Consider working with information technology to create short links, or ask what site is approved to use to create them independently.

Provide your office’s contact information in the event that voters have additional questions or would like to confirm the validity of the email. Don’t forget to inform your team members of all email correspondence that is sent to voters, so they can prepare for a potential influx of inquiries and telephone calls. 

Some election officials will send emails directly to their teams and support teams to help with awareness and visibility. This is especially important for offices that serve multiple purposes and provide different services like a recording office sharing space with the motor vehicle department and elections.

End the email with a proper email sign off like “sincerely” and signature. Signatures can help add additional validity and legitimacy, especially when they come from a public figure, like elected officials or department leadership. Election officials should also consider using their agency’s logo if it is not included in their official email signature.

• Some platforms:
  • have robust template options to help users without a design and/or coding background create professionally branded emails.
  • provide analytics where users can see engagement, click, and open rates of their emails.
  • can help with contact management by allowing users to create multiple lists for different emails.

When shopping for platforms it is important to have representatives from your information technology department and any other team members who may be interacting with the platform or email recipients to ensure the platform that is chosen meets the organization’s needs and goals.