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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 America back in the beginning of our country to TV bringing a face and live debate to every home to the Internet, our public officials and government will change as well.  If Obama uses the Internet as much during his presidency as he did during his campaign, change won’t be just that an African American is at 1600 Pennsylvania, it will be how he has enabled the entire country to speak to him to make changes the American people want.  

Day one had a great line up of speakers and content. Day two looks like it will be no different.

Here is my Twitter Stream which I will be updating during the day. I'll then recap later.

Full Twitter String
RSS Feed

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Online Community Sites of Note:

Dell Community
IdeaExchange by Salesforce
Real World New Cast Member by MTV
IdeaStorm by Dell

Updated: 3:45pm

I'm at the Forrester Consumer Forum in Chicago today and tomorrow. I'll be writing my thoughts and observations on the content from the conference here.

So far there have been some great speakers. The theme of the conference is around the online world, social integration, advertising, and how your company can understand and take advantage of this medium. The format of the Forum is pretty cool. Short presentation on targeted topics, then a "coffee talk" type Q&A with the speaker (literally two chairs with an end-table on a stage w/ two large video screens on each side). The dialog is great and personal to those in the audience.

Kicking off the conference was Forrester Vice President and senior analyst Charlene Li. Charlene does a lot of her research around the social technographics. Who is using the social tools, how, and to what level of participation.

Christie Hefner from Playboy had a great keynote on how Playboy has truly been able to leverage the Playboy brand in ways that most companies would drool over. It is amazing how they have been able to integrate new solutions successfully from Print, to TV, to Online, and now Mobile. They have brought the brand beyond the print publication(s) to the real world, and now virtual world with an entry into Second Life. They also have been able to leverage a key demographic and target market by launching PlayboyU, a social space for college students with an .edu email address.

3:45pm
Richard Edelman, president and ceo of Edelmen PRgave one of the most forward thinking perspectives when it comes to PR/MR. It resonates with a lot of what I've been thinking about when it comes to control of messages, brands, and the interaction with your consumers (and in my work, members and consumers). One of the biggest take-aways was the reality of how the traditional media triangle works. It used (and in many corporations still is) to be that a few influencers controlled the conversation and distributed it to the masses. It has touch points of how it got distributed and they all came back to the same message. The internet, and social media such as blogs, ratings, reviews, etc. changes that model. Today if someone wants to have information about some topic, the influencers are now bloggers, customers, like-minded individuals who publish online. Companies have to realize that there is a limited amount of influential control they have left. Now, the mass audience make up their own minds--right, wrong, or in-different.

I also got to attend one of track sessions. It was about how User Generated Content, or UGC, can have a place in corporate strategies. The panel included representatives from Dell, QVC, and Baazarvoice. Each explained how they have taken UGC and integrated it into their company strategies. From Dell's IdeaStorm, a customer feedback site that allows users to rate feedback for popularity, to how QVC uses real-time feedback to inject into their programming. UGC is a tough cookie to crack and how to use it. Let alone if it really does. Many of us have wondered how to make it work. We are fearful of the backlash and if execs can even swallow the fact that they are not in control of what goes on. But that's OK. Rather, we need to find ways that work for us. For example, customer reviews. Having all positive customer reviews on a product page in reality is just product testimonials. You need negative reviews to show authenticity. Companies have to understand how UGC works, it is written by passionate individuals (for good or bad) and it is often intended to help like minded individuals (though companies can listen and learn from them). Monetizing on this type of feedback and content is still a challenge, but models are being formed and success is in the results--more products shipped and more revenue generated.

I'll be updating this more with my notes and perceptions. This is just the beginning so I can pay attention to the presentations and blogging at the same time.

Additional Coverage
Technorati
Forrester Marketing Blog
Flickr

As of 1:00 today FeedBurner was officially acquired by Google. I had a quick chat to day with Rick Klau today regarding setting up an account with them and was double checking about the Terms of Service when he mentioned that they would be updated at around 1:00 today. So the rumors were true! Yes, it seems they were.

I'm excited to see where this all goes. Google just continues to get bigger, but they are making strategic buys too. I mean just think what the JotSpot acquisition will do for them if they integrate it into Google Apps. RSS is the future of content distribution, and now advertising opportunities too. I believe that RSS subscribers are more targeted than regular website pageviews and traffic. FeedBurner has a great model and it will serve Google well.

Congrats to FeedBurner. They have long been a company I've admired, wished I could have worked for (and now you see why!). You can read more about the acquisition at the Burning Questions blog.
Update: Google's Announcement
Chicago Tribune Story (Free Reg. Req.)

The word on the street today is that Niall Kennedy is leaving Microsoft, not long after Robert Scoble left. This is yet another in "A" list or high-profile bloggers leaving their company's to do either start their own business or leave for a new-media company. Kevin O'Keefe asks the obvious question "Can large corps retain the visionaries?" I say no. Here is my short list why:

1. Let's face it, old school companies, ones who are older than the Internet, don't "get it" (bold statement, but more true than false)
2. New media companies like Feedburner, LexBlog, Google, and even Userland have started because those who founded them believed in changing the Internet via the Internet. Old media still believes in traditional ways that are proven. They are less likely to take, or set aside monies for risk that will not make a profit for shareholders. Which leads me to no. 3...
3. Funding is different. Either it is via bootstrapping or VC funding, new media is exactly that...new and thus has to find funding in new ways. Old media have shareholders to answer to and thus cannot or are willing to take chances on new technologies

So can companies keep visionaries...I say it is no because those companies who have visionaries are either too political, have to answer to shareholders, or are too slow to adopt to changing times that the visioinaries get bored and need to feed the need to make a difference. So I ask you...do you have a visionary you need to worry about leaving? Are you sure?

I proudly host my Web sites with Dreamhost and lately I've been a little perterbed with them regarding their Webmail service.  It has been slow, timing out, erroring out, and overall frustrating.  It is with their blog that I learned of some issues they had been dealing with on some of their systems that directly affected Webmail.  So I tolerate the problems knowing they are being addressed.  I routinely have been impressed with how Dreamhost handles the glitches that come their way over the three years I've been hosting with them. 

Last year you may remember that Los Angeles had a major power outage.  Turns out that many Web hosts are located in LA, including Dreamhost, and they were hit head-on with the outage.  The building their server farm sits in lost power, due to the fact that all their back up systems (deisel generators, UPSs, etc.) all failed.  Yes, FAILED.   Well after learning from that experience Dreamhost went into pro-active mode and saught out some disaster recovery solutions, like migrating part of their network over to a second host.  The long and the short of the story is that in the process of being proactive, some other random server issues, and another power outage severs went down, routers crashed, and service was interrupted again.  It is through this blog post Josh, the owner of Dreamhost, explains the problems, how it happened, what was their fault, and how they are fixing it.  Through humor, bluntness, and some associated graphics, this post in itself will be the reason why I continue to host with Dreamhost.  Transparency is key and this blog, a corporate blog at that in its own unique way, is what makes it possible. 

If you are looking for a Web host that has a variety of features, check out Dreamhost.  If you are really looking to host with them, let me know and I can hook you up with a discount code to waive your set-up fee.  Drop me a line at fred [at] fromthe21stfloor [dot] com

Not just for law firms, knowing your own brand is very important. Tom Kane points to quick 10 quesiton corporate brand test for you and your employees. Everyone should take a test like this as everyone in your firm is a corporate advocate or salesperson at some level.

Via Legal Marketing Blog via Tom Collins More Partner Income Blog

To me, your corporate brand is about as important as your product or service. And that has to be distinctly represented on your Web site as well. So if you are in the middle of writing or re-writing your corporate brand policy make sure you incorporate any brand rules to be applied to your Web site as well.

Six Apart this last week announced the release of their latest version of Movabletype. This, for one reason or another, has threw the core users of MT in a tizzy becuase of how 6A made the announcement--via a press release not a blog post (which has since happened). This has sent many MT advocates into a roar about how 6A has forgotten their roots and who put them on the map. The fact is that this latest release had an intended purpose--access and serve a new vertical market. Of course they released it with features that their core users would (*hopefully*) want, and I believe they have. None the less, bloggers around the globe are upset.

I'm on the 6AProNet list and I will admit that even I was surprise when I stumbled across the new MT 3.3 announcement on the MT homepage before I saw it announced on the discussion list. Many of the developers there were seemingly upset as well about the lack of news. From what I can tell, 6A made some minor errors which turned out to be BIG PR headaches which they are now dealing with. I hope that Mena and Ben can handle these in stride and focus on how they can win back some of their audience. Though I hope they also are very clear on who they are trying to win back. What? might you ask. Take a look at what has happened over the last few years with 6A and you might see what I'm talking about.

The following are my top five reasons why your Web site will ultimately be unsucessful and be useless stagnant bits and bytes on the Internet.

5. The IS department is in charge of design and content creation/publishing.
The IS department does not know your content better than you, the content contributor. Unless you have a very specific workflow that facilitates the content creation process and how it interacts with your IS dept. for publishing, it will never work.

4. Your content is "brochure-ware", static and stale.
Have you ever heard this in your office?

"Hey Bob, let's just put our brochure up as content on our web site. It is the same marketing copy we would use anyway, so why re-invent the wheel."

This conversation should never happen. If it does, please..PLEASE say "no" and make sure your content for your web site is written for the Web (yes, there is a difference) and it is reviewed on a regular basis if not changes on a regular basis.

3. The majority of your senior managers and middle managers don't "get it" when it comes to the web.
Your management sees the Web site as a something that you "had" to do to keep up with the Jones', but never saw the value in it and will not put more resources to improving it.

2. You have decentralized content creation without standards and rules.
Can you say Silence of the Lambs? Wild, rabid kids without any supervision will fend for themselves which gives you a fractured, inconsistent mess for your visitors to wade through to find the content they are really looking for. Without explicit standards and business rules, decentralized content control and creation can become unruley and very difficult to manage globally.

1. You don't understand your audience and how they interact wit your brand and company.
Rule number 1: Know thy audience and thy will strive. If you don't know who you are providing content/services to how can you build something they will use or come to?

Tom Kane over at Legal Marketing Blog (again, a fellow BlawgThinker) has a revised list of questions you should have on a firm client intake form. Of course his version is legal focused, but in reality, any firm, of any size, should have a list like this to determine how referrals were given, if the client is worth taking on, and how you think you and your company will interact with them and their company. The last thing any party wants is to engage in a relationship that is destined to be fatal from the beginning. I've written a couple of articles on law firm Web sites and strategies behind them. A few of them refer to placing a client intake form on your Web site for potential clients to fill out. Tom's list is a great starting point to develop that on-line form. Make sure you ask all the right questions on your on-line form to answer all your questions on your off-line form.