An effective campaign for Student Council or student government gets your name out to students and demonstrates your planning and organizational skills. If you want to run for a student government position, make sure you plan ahead and start early; a few last-minute posters made in your basement and an improvised speech won't impress your voters.
Choosing a Theme
Choose a theme before you begin your campaign. You want to brand yourself with a recognizable color and font that you can use on all your materials. For best results, choose a readable but unusual font (not Times New Roman). Your colors can be your school colors (if no other candidates have done this yet) or a completely different color. Decide if you want a slogan or whether you plan to run on a specific platform, such as improving school lunches.
Visibility: Posters and Flyers
Use posters and flyers in your color and font scheme to gain visibility on your school or campus. Think quality, not quantity; a few well-placed posters helps you more than a 100 shoddy ones. Consider using professional printing services to make glossy 11-by-17 posters. Make sure your name is highly visible on the posters and flyers, and have a friend spell-check them before you print.
Giveaways: Stickers and Magnets
Creating smaller giveaways improves your visibility and lets you interact with students. Buttons are traditional, but it's easier to order stickers from a photo printing service, like Zazzle or Shutterfly. Students will also like small magnets, which they can put on their lockers. Hand out stickers to the student body at popular locations, such as the cafeteria.
Networking: Get To Know the Voters
You can't rely on your posters and stickers to convince students to vote for you. Get to know people from different grades and different social groups, and genuinely listen to what people have to say. Go to club meetings and activities, sports events and other school activities to meet new people.
Giving Good Campaign Speeches
A perfect campaign speech is the finishing touch to a solid campaign. Start writing your speech at least a week in advance, and don't just copy a speech from the internet. It will sound generic and false. Play up your personality, make references to the school (such as the infamous mystery meat at lunch) and state your platform directly and concisely. Keep your speech short--if you're given a time limit, try to only use half of it. Rehearse your speech several times until you know it by heart.
Tags: your speech, color font, posters flyers, student government, your name, your school