It’s over. Fini. Vorbei. Finito. Se acabó. The election night belongs now to the past. The communication campaign is a nice reminder. We worked days and nights to communicate about the European Parliament. We spend hours on writing articles, explaining why the elections matter, updating and improving the attendance of the EP in the social medias… More than a work, it was like our own lives were “en jeu”.
It's difficult to find new challenges after the elections... Photo by Koshyk on Flickr
And now? What’s next? After the tension of the election night (“Here are the first results! Tweeeeeeeeeeeet please! Asap!”), we’re coming in what I call a “post-electoral depression”. Nothing matters any more. Day-to-day work seems quite boring. What’s the aim of the articles we write, if not to increase the turnout in the elections?
On top of that, after having been in the “centre of the world” – or the “centre of Europe”, with hundreds of thousands of visits (i.e. readers) each day, nobody cares about us now. The stats are going down. We will become anonymous again on the web. No banner campaign, no Google adwords. Well, is that strange to be a normal citizen, waking up each morning for going to work instead of changing the world!
Retrospectively, overmotivation is probably dangerous. We should now wait five years until we can experience again an electoral campaign. For the time being, I will go on holidays. Just to forget a little bit the work, just to remind me that there are some wonderful things in the world which have nothing to do with my job. And when I will come back, I will be highly motivated for the next challenges. Because fortunately, we will find new goals, new projects, new deadlines … La vie est un éternel recommencement, en somme…
Post-project depression is not limited to election campaigns – ask anyone who’s ever rolled out a major site. The post-launch emptiness is positively frightening.
The obvious solution, of course, is to not stop, or even slow down. Keep some sort of campaign going for 5 years, rather than for the 6 months preceding each election, and who knows? Participation rates might just start going up! ;-)
Impossible for the team you have, of course, but the thing with social media is that the term ‘team’ should be replaced with ‘community’, which is bigger.
Don’t give up :) There are still some very interesting topics around the EP: first of all stories on the negotiations for the EP president. But also explaining the different roles in the EP (president, group leaders, head of delegations). Finally how will things work with the Lisbon Treaty and so on.
C’mon guys ! The campaign has been recognized as highly sucessful, original, well built and informative. Same remark for THE night of June 7.
No reason to feel down and, as I see it, new challenges are already appearing in the European Parliament. So… A bit of rest and on the road again !
Sorry to go slightly off topic, but speaking about new goals, projects and deadlines – I have a small suggestion on my blog for those of you who won’t be rushing off to green pastures during the coming weeks.
Regards,
Ralf
Sums it up really. Relief and relaxation come with a strong “now what?” feeling. http://tiny.cc/mpiyT
Writing for (y)EU | Post-electoral depression http://bit.ly/9J3vY
Tell us how we can make your life better in the future, and I am sure there will be many of us who will join to make this happen!