I’ve been wanting to make an informative social media post about contacting reps for my library awareness campaign. So, the only way I could give a lot of helpful information was to do it myself.
The Process
I didn’t want to go in completely blind so I found some articles. Here’s one on calling reps. Here’s another one on emailing/writing reps.
I found my legislators and called the first one. There was only one number listed, so I called and got an intern. I was expecting a robot to direct me to my legislator’s phone (can you tell I’ve never contacted my reps before?!). I explained to the intern that I wanted to contact my legislator about library funding. I was given the option to either let the intern leave a message or to give my name and number so my legislator could call me back. I went with the latter. I didn’t get a call back from that legislator that day. (I plan to follow up with an email or call again if I don’t get a response in a few days)
I went on to call my next rep, but I called his personal phone. It went to voicemail, and I started reading off my script, but I got cut off after two minutes. I’d suggest keeping your messages concise and/or giving a summary with a request for a callback. My second rep called me a few hours later and left me a voicemail the same day. In his voicemail, he mentioned that he would try to restore some funding, but that cuts would have to be made and might make other people unhappy. I suggest maybe having some compromises in your back pocket (ex: I understand budget cuts need to be made. I suggest cutting the four million expenditure for private school vouchers to restore the SD library budget.)
For my third rep, I ended up emailing him. I found the email along with his phone number. I went back and edited my phone script before sending my email. I got a response later that night.
The Social Media Plan
I wanted to share my experience and tips on contacting my legislators on Instagram and Facebook. I used a Canva template. It’s a lot of information to share! I tried keeping my post simple and then linked a detailed experience in my linktree. I really hope this helps people contact their reps!
Have you ever contacted your local rep? Let me know below. Until next time!