Editor’s Note: I’m going to stay away from the politics of this issue, but aim to talk more about the method.
What happened Tuesday was due to a lot of different factors, but undeniably, online and social media had a cornerstone role play in the election of Barack Obama.
Barack’s team almost flawlessly (note: one of the key players was involved in Facebook, should give you a clue) executed a social media and online strategy that raised hundreds of millions of dollars and mobilized thousands of people. I’m willing to bet the person who’s going to make the most money next cycle is a set of smart, conservative online strategists because I’m sure the Republicans are taking notes.
Seeing the power of their website (really, presence) – and now, with their transition site – it’s very obvious Barack “gets” online media. But what are the lessons to take home to your business or organization? Here are four I came up with.
1) Small payments work. Companies like 37signals blazed the path for this, but online can be a powerful way to raise small amounts of money from large amounts of people. I’m glad to see Motor City Connect, a social media business site here in the Detroit area, adopt this low-cost, high-value model and I hope it works for them.
2) It’s about touchpoints. Every post-analysis and my own experience showed that this was a “high touch” campaign. He/They did a masterful job of taking you “along for the ride,” engaging you in the story, all the way down to the thank you text message after victory. It was like a great TV show or movie, you were part of the action, you were involved.
3) They’ve created long term political capital they can draw on. To be sure, I expect emails on policy at some point. Not as much as during the campaign, but that database of 3 million or so names and emails is sheer gold for moving forward agendas. This has a business application in that you need to remember that all of your campaigns can build upon eachother, even if you switch firms or agencies (always get/keep your data!).
4) The power of cohesive, emotionally-connecting branding works. The Obama campaign, even in counties they lost, due to the money they raised and the presence they were able to project, were able to gain six to ten points over John Kerry’s performance, even in areas they knew they were going to lose. That made the core urban areas put them over the top in tough races. They opened their message/branding of “Change” to many more people than before. I can’t tell you how many republicans I know voted for Obama, because in part, it was a cohesive message, and John McCain appeared erratic because of such consistency.
Of course, there were a multitude of factors to his victory. But I’m sure that without the social and online media components, he wouldn’t of made it out of the primaries.
