I don’t think anyone can argue that Barak Obama made history this week. While the popular vote was no landslide, unlike the electoral college, Obama had several strategic game changers during election campaign that separated him from his opponent. So it should come as no surprise that everyone is now writing about how organizations can use the same tactics and strategies and apply them to their own organization. Here are just a few articles and blog posts worth reading over.
Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators - Harvard
Business Publishing
What Newsrooms Can Learn From Obama - Recovering Journalist
Blog
How Better Marketing Elected Barack Obama - Harvard Business Publishing
BNET: Obama’s Communications Moving at Warp Speed
While the use of technology will was not the only game changer in the Obama campaign, it played a significant role in my opinion. His campaign strategically found ways to connect with his constituents by allowing them to campaign on his behalf through myBarakObama blogs, using text messaging for updates, using YouTube to let video messages go viral, and use of his ever growing email database.
While I certainly can’t dissect his entire campaign strategy, he also brilliantly executed an integrated marketing strategy. He took the concept of “small is the new big” by asking for small donations from individuals, not the maximum from them at once. Additionally, he asked his database of volunteers and advocates to do small things such as calling friends and strangers about his campaign, which resulted in a huge workforce.
I think Obama executed two strategies extremely well during his campaign. First, he brilliantly used social media to empower his followers. Jermiah Owyang, a Forrester analyst on Social Media, researched and found stats on how Obama and McCain used social media. While Owyang won’t draw any correlations to the use of social media to his win, Obama commanded the use of the Internet. I believe it was that use of technology that helped, if for nothing else, give him exposure to a larger population of voters. McCain followed suit by participating in the same space, but I believe the generation gap of a 70+ year old using MySpace and Facebook wasn’t as authentic as a 40+ year old. In fact to compete with Obama’s “MyBarakObama”, McCain launched McCainSpace using social network took Kick-Apps.
Obama’s second strategic win was how he treated his volunteers, and that was with respect and authenticity. He would send a message (or tried on several occasions to mixed results) to his volunteers and donors informing them of what he was going to do next before he would do it to the media. He understood that by informing this audience first he not only respected that they want information, but knew that they would spread that message beyond what the media could accomplish. However, by informing his volunteers and donors first he also put transparency on his campaign and that, in my opinion, is a level of authenticity that builds trust.
And Obama’s not done either.
Change.gov launched yesterday getting not only himself ready for the
next four years, but informing the American people as well. As technology evolves, going back to the U.S.
Mail distributing pamphlets to
Do you really think Obama sent all of this own messages on Facebook and via email? If not, does something get lost because the messages aren't real? Or are they? How about the CEO who pays someone to blog for him or the companies that hire companies to tweet on their behalf. Do people care who sent it as long as it looks like it is from someone they trust? Are we creating new Wizards of Oz that are not exactly what people believe them to be? Or is that just part of the new tolerance for stuff that is just good enough?
Good questions. I think when it came to the Obama campaign, people understood that the blog posts, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts were not really him posting. However, I believe Obama had a say in approving what was said. I think followers of Obama knew that his campaign was managing those accounts. Who knows, maybe he did draft all of them only to be tweaked by his staff.
However, while this reality may have worked for Obama, not all blogs, social media accounts, can get away with the same hazed transparency. CEO blogs, while by definition are not different than what Obama did with his blog, command a high respect for authenticity and transparency. And I guess that's the ultimate trick, authenticity. If you believe the posts, tweets, etc of social media of the people you follow are authentic, does it matter who writes it?