Aaron Rodriguez

February 3,2021

Account Breakdown #2

Cohort 21S

            The Charlette Hornets developed an effective campaign called “Swarm the Polls” to encourage people to vote and inform them of the resources that were available to them. This campaign started in early September right after they finished encouraging the Black Lives Matter movement and black-owned businesses. Their first post was on September 2 where they had a save the date video about an event on September 15 where they would have sports leaders talk about the importance of voting. On September 4 they continued to encourage voting by telling people to see if they could receive an absentee ballot and this post was linked to the Hornets team voting page.

           The voting page encouraged people to vote at the Spectrum Center. They provided information about the Spectrum Center and how it was being used as a polling station as well as provided information about the North and South Carolina elections. Lower on the page there were three tabs of content; News, Videos, and Photo Galleries. These tabs were provided to show people how easy it is to vote and provides facts to people to let them know things like 16 and 17 years old can pre-register to vote and showing what their polling station looks like and the precautions they are taking. News articles highlighted another polling station at the Greensboro Swarm home arena and the other article encouraged people to “Swarm the Polls” to have their voice heard.

           Through September they continued to highlight registration drives and how they are preparing for the election. They also highlighted the different voter registration days through photos and videos. This continued through early October and they would make posts asking people if they registered to vote in the days after the deadline. An interesting aspect of the beginning of October was that they started to have posts in Spanish to ask if they registered to vote and the different ways that they could vote. They partnered with a local restaurant called Leah and Louise where they held “Swarm the Polls” informational nights. They continued the month showing people who voted early and as election day got closer they had Deloris Jordan (Michael Jordan’s mom) showing her approval of using the Spectrum center as a polling station as well as Coach JB visiting “Swarm the Polls” events and wanted people to tag a friend. Early November highlighted that November 2 would be the last day for early voting which they posted in English and Spanish and regular basketball content continued November 7.

           The campaign posted very frequently and highlighted all the important dates for voting through videos and pictures as well as through their website. They provided information not only in English but also in Spanish and showed how easy it is to vote and to get others to vote. As the election day got closer, they posted more to get people to vote and provide the information they need to be able to do so as well as got their prominent figures to speak to their fans. During the campaign, they also were able to get a local business involved which was great given the fact that local businesses are hurting. This was an effective way of using social media to encourage people to vote.