Candidates running for Carlmont High School Associated Student Body (ASB) president pulled out all of the tricks to win over voters using social media, campus events, and one-on-one conversations to stand out in a competitive field and convince students that they deserved the spot as ASB president.
From Feb. 24-28, Carlmont High School students ran campaigns for ASB president. With over 2,000 students to convince, each candidate had to put their best foot forward with every student to win over each vote.
“My personal preference from teaching leadership for so many years is the personal interaction: going up and talking to people. It obviously also takes the longest time,” said James Kelly, the ASB director.
Candidates Max Fetterly and Vaid Nallu, both seniors at Carlmont, had mostly used social media to spread their campaigns throughout the school. Both Fetterly and Nallu used social media and posters the most, especially because of the reach of social media. While connecting with individuals one-on-one might get people to learn more about them on a personal level, it would take them many weeks to connect with just a fraction of the people they can reach with social media.
Fetterly’s campaigning was done in a variety of ways, from posters to in-person interactions. He put up posters to make sure people saw his campaign all over campus, whether they had social media or not.
“My campaign has mostly been on social media but also advertising by approaching a different variety of people during school,” Fetterly said.
Nallu found that both social media and putting up posters around the school had their strengths. Social media allowed him to build up a good following and build momentum towards voting day. However, social media also has its downsides; people see hundreds of posts a day in their feed, and the candidate’s few posts can easily be forgotten soon after seeing them.
Nallu thinks that physical posters bring more attention and bring people to action, even though not as many people see them.
“If you see a post on Instagram, you might just forget about it tomorrow, but seeing campaigning messages while eating your lunch carries more weight, though it might reach fewer people at a time,” Nallu said.
Kelly has noticed over the years that with many students using social media, there have been a few who have taken the more personal approach of going up to people, introducing themselves, and saying what they have in mind for change. He thinks that this method gets the most participation and a more positive response to campaigns.
“If you make a person a personal introduction or a personal invitation, you’re going to get better participation,” Kelly said.
As Carlmont students geared up for a chaotic voting day, candidates Nallu and Fetterly continued to wait for the moment when the voting results were released.
“Social media gives you the best read on who has viewed or interacted with your post, giving you a perspective on who might vote for you,” Fetterly said.
With the best outlook for their school, the next ASB president will lead Carlmont in activities and school spirit for the upcoming school year.
“I have so much respect for students who run for office because, essentially, you’re putting yourself out there. There’s such a massive social risk to put yourself out there saying, ‘Hey, vote for me’,” Kelly said.
