Recent focus groups with Ohioans who didn’t vote in 2024 offer valuable insights for anyone trying to reach and mobilize disengaged voters. These participants weren’t apathetic or uninformed, they simply don’t consume information in the ways most political campaigns expect.

Here are some key takeaways for communicators and strategists:

1. Infrequent voters don’t follow political accounts

These voters aren’t refreshing campaign websites or following politicians on social media and they’re not going to start. They come across political news passively: through social media feeds, word of mouth, and content shared by people they already follow. That means if you want to reach them, your content has to travel. Design it to be easily shared, easily reposted, and interesting enough for creators or friends to want to pass it along.

2. Video dominates how they consume content

Most participants said they tend to consume video content almost exclusively, particularly from YouTube, Instagram Reels and TikTok. Static graphics or text posts may not register. National data confirms this: about one-third of adults regularly get news from YouTube, and 52% of TikTok users report regularly getting news there.

3. To get seen, work with the algorithm

To get seen, your content has to reach people who aren’t looking for it. On video platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Reels, most people aren’t seeing posts from accounts they follow, they’re seeing whatever the algorithm serves up. That gives messengers a choice: either design content that’s likely to travel algorithmically (short, vertical video with strong openings and mobile-friendly captions), or work with creators who already reach these audiences and can deliver the message in their own voice. Either approach can work, but simply posting to your feed and hoping people find it won’t be enough.

4. Work with trusted messengers

Rather than building your own following from scratch, partner with creators who already have these voters’ trust. Think of creators as today’s campaign surrogates, not delivering stump speeches, but showing up in people’s feeds and sharing political information in their own language. The most effective content blends useful facts with the kind of personal or community-centered posts their followers already expect. Focus on real relationships and give creators what they need to speak authentically.

5. Don’t underestimate traditional media

Some participants pick up political news passively from more tradition sources, like local TV news that’s playing in their homes or talk radio a coworker is tuned into at a job sites. These channels may not be central to your digital strategy, but they still shape political awareness, especially among older voters and working-class men. Work for earned media on local TV and radio and consider running ads during drive-time talk radio to reinforce your message beyond digital platforms.

Bottom-Line: Reaching infrequent voters won’t happen through traditional outreach or surface-level engagement. It requires deeper investment in how information spreads today and who voters actually trust to deliver it.