Sign waving? Usefull or waste of time?

[Brian4Liberty]

Regarding the signs, a comment from a co-worker during the 2008 elections really stuck with me.

He told me that he didn't think much of Ron Paul because many of the homemade signs posted around town were of really poor quality. He didn't think that someone with crappy signs was worth serious consideration.

I'm not saying he was right, but I can understand his point. Shoddy presentation will do more harm than good when it comes to swaying the masses.

Generally agree. Sign waving, especially home made signs, comes across to most people as fringe.

 

[Matt Collins]

You are assuming that sign waves are all about winning voters. I disagree, they are about creating "buzz" and invigorating your grass roots! If you do sign waves correctly they can do a ton for you come election day.

GOTV phone calls are much more effective. Rand just proved that.

 

[angelatc]

Of course, but there are proven methods to winning elections. Sign waving isn't one of them.

I actually agree with you here. But, and I'm sure you know this, it's not like the people waving signs would be working a phone bank if they were not waving signs.

After seeing the enthusiasm from the sign wavers, I was surprised at how hard it was to get volunteers to do the stuff like staffing the phones and knocking on doors.

 

[specsaregood]

It is a great way to initiate new recruits and get their phone numbers so you can harass them into participating in more productive efforts later on.

After seeing the enthusiasm from the sign wavers, I was surprised at how hard it was to get volunteers to do the stuff like staffing the phones and knocking on doors.

Which is why you go to a sign waving event, with printouts of voter lists/addresses and printouts of maps of neighborhoods next to the sign waving location. Wave for awhile, then pressure them into coming with you to knock on doors. Just tell em to tag along at first, once they do so for awhile they'll feel comfortable enough to do houses on their own.

 

[Matt Collins]

I actually agree with you here. But, and I'm sure you know this, it's not like the people waving signs would be working a phone bank if they were not waving signs.

After seeing the enthusiasm from the sign wavers, I was surprised at how hard it was to get volunteers to do the stuff like staffing the phones and knocking on doors.

You would be surprised.

 

[Maximus]

I attended the last Ron Paul sign wave after the election. I meet 3 other people for the first time, we exchanged numbers, talked politics, started making plans for the future.

I think sign waves have a use in terms of getting volunteers together, pumped, and coordinated.

I don't think they will win an election. It has its place.

 

[Elwar]

I attended the last Ron Paul sign wave after the election. I meet 3 other people for the first time, we exchanged numbers, talked politics, started making plans for the future.

I think sign waves have a use in terms of getting volunteers together, pumped, and coordinated.

I don't think they will win an election. It has its place.

Ya, I remember that day...I was at home, not canvassing my neighborhood.

But at least I didn't waste my time with a sign wave.

 

[Agorism]

It as very effective this last weekend because people saw that the Paul people were already out campaigning while the others hadn't even thought about what to do yet.

 

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

These threads always crack me up. It's just a bunch of noise. Campaigns are like every other form of selling on the planet.

Canvass -> Qualify -> Close -> Followup

Everyone here has an opinion but no one has any numbers behind their opinions. I might as well bring up the education genie again. People do not have any clue how much money it takes to get a sale. The only thing that makes politics different than any other product is what you are selling and there will be some market trends in the niche market of politics (like it might require knocking on 100 doors do get one vote versus 3 votes per 100 doors with another product).

Big companies have figured it out which is why they spend most of there money on TV. When they open a market there will be a combination of media marketing and a grand opening. A Ron Paul event with Ron Paul in person in your town is your grand opening.

When you canvass you are not trying to close, only qualify. Qualify for what? Qualify for an opportunity to make a sales pitch. Can I schedule an appointment to come over and talk about the platform of Dr. Paul with you and your spouse.

If politics was some normal business when you showed up for the appointment and successfully closed your sales pitch on the platform of Dr. Paul you would be asking for a $100 donation to the campaign and you would earn a commission for every sale.

Not with politics though. Your rulers expect you to get out there and work your ass off for them for free.

Would the sign wave critics show me the cost/benefit ratio? What are you marketing exactly when you sign wave? Google Ron Paul? Does that create any opportunity for followup? What is the: Will sit down in front of a keyboard when they get home and Google ratio?

 

[GunnyFreedom]

These threads always crack me up. It's just a bunch of noise. Campaigns are like every other form of selling on the planet.

Canvass -> Qualify -> Close -> Followup

Everyone here has an opinion but no one has any numbers behind their opinions.

Pretty much agree with everything you say except...

I think I do in fact have some numbers behind my opinion. 11k vs 10k in fact. If it helps, I have drawn the same conclusions as your post above.

Work the precincts, targeted canvass. GOTV. I didn't just "ride the wave" as no other local race in my region changed hands but mine, so what we did had real impact. Your "Canvass -> Qualify -> Close -> Followup" methodology is more defined than what I was working with, but it amounts to the same thing.

Listen everybody, I want to see a victory RP12 as badly as anybody on these forums, and because of my election to the NC State House I am not going to have the time to canvass and campaign for RP like I did in 2008. That means we need you, all of you to get damn serious about this and I mean right now, not a year from now but now.

We need to get lists of Republican Primary voters in every district in the US, and if we started right now, I bet we could literally visit every republican primary voter in America in time for the 2012 GOP primary.

Are we willing to at least give it a shot?

 

[Joseph]

Sign waving was not a waist of time, neither was putting up signs on overheads and posting signs anywhere and everywhere. The sign waving culture in all it's forms was one of the most successful if not the single most successful way we spread the message of Ron Paul. The term "Ron Paul" was on the list of the top 10 most googled items. (From what I hear, I don't have a source for that.) The two other things that got him recognition were winning the text message polls in the debates and the big money days: Nov 5th and Dec 16th. Those were the top three things that got him recognition and they made up the overwhelmingly large majority of how people heard about him. We can not get rid of the sign waving or the putting up of signs, it was far too effective.

 

[Elwar]

I drive up and down my busy commercial road every day and there are sign wavers there every day.

The gold store, the income tax place, the pizza place (usually gets me thinking about having some pizza as I'm going home), the seafood place, etc...

If sign wavers are a waste, somebody might want to tell these store owners since they're paying these people hourly.

 

[JamesButabi]

Effective and easy to do. Not only that, but you can discuss alternate strategy while sign waving with a meetup. Thats more effective than sitting inside planning.

 

[radiofriendly]

The Final Word on Sign Waving...

This is the final word on sign waving.

It is useful as a break between doing things that are actually useful.

 

[ItsTime]

If you sign wave please consider this. It worked in my county (Ron got 20%+ of the vote).

Pick a day, sign wave at a busy intersection for a few hours. You can even sign wave in shifts. While one shift is sign waving the other shift is going door to door. Then after the sign wave you all go door to door.

This is HUGE. You will get a lot of positive response to this.

 

[Feenix566]

Sign waving is FUN!

How many Americans can name all the primary candidates from both parties in the 2008 election? Like 1% maybe? How many Americans can name every starting quarterback in the NFL? A lot more! Why? Because watching football is FUN!

If you want more people to get involved in politics, you have to make it fun. Sign waving is how you do that.

 

[Deborah K]

I say they're useful, even when the signs are crappy like miine are:

That's one of my grandkids. He's going to be a liberty warrior someday!

 

[Michael P]

GOTV phone calls are much more effective. Rand just proved that.

I agree 100%. I also don't think Schiff would have come close to 24% without it.

I don't think sign waving hurts, it can only help, so if people want to sign wave... I say go for it!

my 2c

 

[TruckinMike]

Is sign waving a waste of time?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Sign waving/banners/coroplast signs got an enormous amount of attention for Ron Paul -- Just simple name recognition alone would have been leaps and bounds ahead of NEVER hearing of him. The signs did more than that, they inspired people to look up his name when they got home.

If Ron Runs again I have a website in the making about making and posting signs for Ron Paul.

How to make, where to place, and when. Many people posted coroplast signs for Ron , however if every RP supporter (one million +) would have placed ten 18"x24" signs in their neighborhood, RP would have had over 10 million signs posted with his name.

My goal is to get every supporter to do that very thing -- I will sale a screen printing screen at cost to any meetup group or persons that would like to mass produce these signs for around $1.25 each including coroplast board and ink(waterbased). --- A printer charges around $5 each with an order of 100+.

I'm working on another graphic with a dude on a surf board - - Hanging Ten while holding an RP for Pres sign.

Hopefully I can motivate folks to do this... I'll try.

TMike

 

[Deborah K]

Yaye Mike!