Just a few weeks ago we brought you the news of the unofficial Lib Dem Facebook group that was growing by 1,000 members an hour.
Now its members are enthusiastically promoting a series of flashmobs. There’s been one scheduled for London for some time, but I know many of us discounted going to that on the simple horror of getting to London on a bank holiday, whilst we should be shoving leaflets through letterboxes in our various provincial locations.
The prospect of a series of nationwide flashmobs, however, makes attendance just a little easier, no? Here’s the details from a thread in the facebook group:
Vicky Blake There is a growing number of Flashmobs!!! Please help us Tweet them and ATTEND ONE IF YOU CAN!! It will be a great chance to do consciousness raising and talk to people who get interested, to demonstrate support on the streets, cheer people up with yellowness and to meet fellow LibDemmers!
Paxo is currently finishing off Gordy, so let’s get out there and convince any remaining floating votes, convince wibblers that LibDems are the way to go, and help people who are on the fence between Lab/Lib and Lib/Con make an informed decision! If you can, after the Flashmob in yourarea, get to the local LibDem HQ and help them out with leaflets, canvassing, etc!
So far there are the following Flashmobs following the same basic plan (most are at 3pm but I think Manchester and Deby are slightly different and Derby is being finalised). Plese help the organisers of your most local one out if you possibly, possibly can!
#LibDemFlashmob
LONDON Flashmob: http://tinyurl.com/35bbwao
NEWCASTLE Flashmob: http://tinyurl.com/34m9lv6
GLASGOW Flashmob: http://tinyurl.com/363k5p2
MANCHESTER Flashmob: http://tinyurl.com/39v6384
DERBY Flashmob: http://tinyurl.com/35at3b3
BRISTOL Flashmob: http://tinyurl.com/33aztyw
And now also: BIRMINGHAM Flashmob: http://tinyurl.com/32ortwb
PLEASE TWEET AND RETWEET ALL on #libdemflashmob & other libdem hashtags!
Now. If only there were some way to channel all these enthusiastic flashmobbers into productive campaign activity… something like a minibus pressgang to shuttle the mobbers from their location to a Lib Dem HQ…
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
The Joy of Six 1535
Makerfield: we can breathe again.
Brexit has cut trade in almost every sector of the UK economy
Replacement?
Reform inadvertently lose their majority
Ian Sanderson (RM3)
Jana
David Raw
Alex Macfie
21 Comments
Some of us really are planning to go leafleting etc afterwards! 🙂 We’ve been getting in touch with local offices to alert them of the event and for the potential to get a group of enthusiastic Lib Demmers helping out — help us get the word out and the more people you have at your fingertips! 🙂
There are plans to go leafleting in Vauxhall and Streatham after the Trafalgar Square one… should be an easy ride to Vauxhall on the 88 bus from Trafalgar Square, and people with more time can go to Streatham.
Sometimes these days I feel the English language is passing me by.
Fortunately Wikipedia came to my rescue:
“A flash mob (or flashmob) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse.”
I have politely commented on the Manchester mob that afterwards everyone could go down to John Leech’s office and do a round of delivery… I think that’ll be more effective than a flashmob by the Town Hall, which will be dead on a Bank Holiday Monday…
A lot of us in the London one are going to help with leafleting in Vauxhall and Streatham after we have finished.
A few people are poopooing these as non-productive but it gets people who want to do something a bit wacky or out there (and would never have volunteered to stuff envelopes or deliver) in a group of similar minded people who might want to meet up again to help the libdems. It can’t hurt.
Get someone with a clipboard down there to get anyones details and “Do you want to come help us at the office today or tomorrow? We’ll give you a ring / text message an hour before ok?”
A small box of leaflets if your area is quite busy on a monday, give a few people some national leaflets each and get them to hand them out or stand as quite a big group. Even the smaller ones are 6-7 people at the moment, all wearing yellow.
Agree with Donald. More spontaneous social contact that isn’t necessarily organised through the local party chair can do nothing but good. If people choose to go leafletting at the end, so much the better, but it’s just that, a choice. They’re creating an entire social network of their own volition, give them a break.
What are the chances of Labour heavies being sent in with idiot placards and loudspeakers, as usual? They usually try to disrupt anything that they hear about…
I should think if there was one thing guaranteed to turn supportive funsters having a day out in Trafalgar Square into outraged and committed campaigners, it would be that 😀
For the wibblers on this event, please remember we are committed to getting positive coverage for the LibDems and many people will be leafleting afterwards, and quite a number already have been! here is also a significant contingent of people below voting age going along to a Flashmob near them who want to help make a difference and a splash in a fun way — and they’re your next generation of voters!
guys
the aim of these flashmobs is different from normal canvassing –
we all have heard that 49% of people would vote lib dem if they thought we could win – but the reason they dont is because the mainstream media have conditioned the electorate into believing that a lib dem win is impossible
the point of the flashmobs is to do something different – shocking – to break that mindset –
thats why we have organised it in multiple locations – so that we can force the media to pay attention and get people to break old biases and see the world differently – (when we first planned this the guardian was still backing labour and peddling the myth that voting labour was the only way progressives could prevent a conservative government)
ANOTHER one planned for BIRMINGHAM — can you help attend/spread the word?
BIRMINGHAM Flashmob: http://tinyurl.com/32ortwb
I think it’s too easy to get stuck in the leaftetting mindset… like the bigger ton of paper we can put through people’s doors, that determines the winners…. as if…Sure a leaflet might provide material to someone who is housebound, has no television, and doesn’t have access to the internet, but that’s a pretty small minority of the electorate! Move with the times guys, and show some support for the positive energy that is coming at you. A campaign is not solely about shifting piles of tired old leaflets.
Laura, I’m not going to diss the flashmob idea. If it gets new people involved, if it gets people involved in new ways, if it has a benefit to the Lib Dems, then I’m all for it. I’ve supported flashmobs before, though admittedly not this close to an election. I’ve tweeted about the Manchester flashmob, I’ve let the other Manchester Lib Dems know about it, and I’m having a few discussions about ways to stay in touch with the people who turn up for it.
However, it pretty much is true that the more leaflets you can deliver, the more likely you are to win. Our campaign methods are tried, tested and proven. We keep doing them because they work. If they didn’t, I have much better things to do with my time than deliver Focus. My bank balance would be better without spending money on printing. My blisters would be a lot less sore!
I’m prepared to give stuff like blogging and tweeting and flashmobbing a go, but I personally consider them to be bonus activities I do on top of the old-school Focus, casework, petitions etc. Perhaps over time the balance will shift and these new campaigning methods will prove their worth as time investments compared to other things, but until that happens we’d be foolish to abandon them.
Unfortunately my partner burned the only piece of yellow clothing I owned while telling me it’s “not my colour”, so even if I do tear myself away from delivering my last pre-election leaflet before polling day, I won’t be able to fit into the theme of the event!
Parthiban, you talk about forcing the media to pay attention – has anybody sent out any press releases about these events to make sure the media knows about them? It’d drastically increase the chances of news cameras turning up…
Dave there has already been an in depth discussion about media involvement on the discussion board of the main group — check there, because it has been thought through. We have discussed and thought all of it through in fact, despite the reservations some of you guys seem to have — come on we’re on the same team!
Dave – I think the social media are a real powerhouse in this election, not a bonus. They’re a driver. Sites like the RATM facebook site have allowed people to hone their rebuttal skills when faced by questions about Lib Dem policy from relatives and friends (or when actively working on said friends!) and to share a whole lot of other important information on helping on the ground, complaining to Ofcom etc. etc. with incredible speed.
Laura – People who don’t go on the internet much if at all, don’t read the papers and maybe watch the news with half an eye are actually a LOT of voters, and the only way of reaching them is by delivering leaflets and knocking on doors. For every door we don’t knock on or every voter we don’t call, Labour or the Tories will.
and what Vicky said – we’re all on the same team! I think it’s just a question of communicating the advantages of each means of communication and assessing the time priorities.
Those who are not familiar with social media might find it useful to think of it as an energy that you can tap into (or not.) No one organised or controlled the #nickcleggsfault outpouring of ironic support on Twitter after the newspaper mudslinging, but look at the impact that had! There is a huge energy and enthusiasm out there that, given a focal point like the flashmob idea, could result in some high profile free advertising and media coverage. The key point is that it’s a matter of tapping into what’s going on, and giving it a focus and direction, rather than trying to control or organise too much.
Just been on the phone to a good friend who’s a LibDem activist and No2ID coordinator — he makes the point you can’t underestimate the power of a viral campaign, especially among younger voters – those of whom have the vote but wouldn’t normally bother we’re especially targetting with this. I think leaflets are necessary for certain demographics, but as others have said those aren’t the only ones who need to be encouraged to vote LD on the day.
One more thing I meant to say! Social media is FAST! If something takes off it can reach a lot of people and make an impact in a very short space of time, so it’s definitely not too late to make a difference!
use of the new social media and leafletting are complementary activities –
just as there are many people who do not use the web and get all their info from leaflets and newspapers, there are also many (like myself) who NEVER read leaflets and get all their information from the internet –
so doing these two very different kinds of activities are aimed at completely different target audiences –
it would be silly for any marketing campaign to ignore one target audience and focus solely on another – its not about one method being better than another – its about reaching the widest possible audience –