Podcast: Kristen Soltis Anderson – Engaging the Millennial Voter

When I asked my business partner, Rich, who would make a great podcast guest to chat with about crafting engaging messaging in politics and public policy, he replied Kristen Soltis Anderson without skipping a beat. And, I’m glad he did! Kristen is a respected pollster, co-host of the bipartisan podcast http://www.thepollsters.com/, co-founder of polling and consulting firm Echelon Insights, and regularly lends her voice to ABC News, MSNBC, FOX News, and more.

In this conversation, Kristen and I talk about messaging in the era of social media, the public’s trust in social media platforms, the use of visual storytelling in effective messaging, and what she’s learned from hosting her own successful podcast.

Kristen talks about:

@4:45  How younger voters want a more accountable government where their voices to be heard, more like in the private sector.

@13:00  How brands need to be thoughtful about the term “milennials” and also be clear on the difference between that group and Gen X, Y, and Z.

@20:20  How the recent distrust in Facebook doesn’t seem to translate to other companies like Google and Amazon even though those companies have a lot more data on us as individuals.

@27:10  The need to be careful with micro-targeting to be sure it doesn’t just look or sound interesting, but will in fact make a measurable difference.

@35:00  Some of her favorite things, from soup dumplings to Star Wars to spicy peppers. Don’t miss the lightening round!

Useful links:

* Kristen’s Personal Democracy Forum talk.

* Kristen’s book, The Selfie Vote

If you liked this episode, I also recommend that you check out my conversation with Elizabeth Merrick May where we discuss how to craft messaging for both large and one-to-one audiences.

Thanks for listening and I hope your time spent with our podcast has brought you value. If you have any comments or suggestions on who would be great for us to talk with in future episodes, please leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you.

Until next time, #BeEngagious