10. Show your social networking strength.
Three candidates excel in using Facebook to create buzz about themselves: District 17 Senate challenger Cheryl Kagan, District 19 Delegate candidate Sam Arora and, of course, the King of Facebook himself – Saqib Ali. Each of them has stratospheric Friend counts: Kagan has 3,116, Ali has 2,921 and Arora has 2,436. Any time they are favorably mentioned in a blog post, a news article or anywhere else, they send their thousands of supporters swarming in to read about it. It is no accident that this blog’s monthly top ten post lists regularly include several posts about one or more of these three since they are so good at promoting their candidacies. By showing their Facebook Friends the positive coverage they get, Kagan, Ali and Arora build morale among their supporters, encourage them to contribute more volunteer time and may even collect more in contributions.

11. Release your website stats
The most important campaign statistic other than money is door-knock count. Most candidates claim to knock on thousands of doors, but few really do it. None of them releases door-knocking statistics that are in any way verifiable. But Kagan has released something almost as good: her website statistics. Kagan came out with an early lit piece last summer that she has not mailed, but uses on doors. Like almost every lit piece, this one promotes her website. As Kagan makes the rounds of District 17, residents on the doors go to her website and likely keep going back because of Kagan’s regularly updated blog. All of this activity shows up in her website statistics, which she has released multiple times and we reprint below.


This is tangible proof of a campaign on the move and good as gold for any challenger.