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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.  

Ah, and you thought you were going to see a post of genius did you?  Well, not yet. That's the topic of a presenation I'm giving on Thursday to a group of State Bar communications staff.  I have a few things in mind, but what are your thoughts?  Still room to tweak my presentation.  Add your top 5 in the comments. After the presentation I'll be posting the slides and notes. 

Today's Wall Street Journal called One Key Fits All tells a tale of something that has been on my mind a lot lately.  In the world where websites are requiring users to create accounts to participate from commenting on blogs to reading archives of a newspaper website, user accounts are inevitable.  However, from a usability perspective, it is a pain in the rear to remember all the different variations of user names, passwords, email addresses, etc. for all of these websites you may participate in.  The concept of OpenID enters the picture as a potential solution to this problem.  Ideally it would be the one-stop-shop of user account management. 

For those not familiar with OpenID, it is:

...a shared identity service, which allows Internet users to log on to many different web sites using a single digital identity, single sign-on, eliminating the need for a different user name and password for each site. OpenID is a decentralized, free and open standard that lets users control the amount of personal information they provide. (Source: WikiPedia)

Where OpenID gets interesting is when you think about taking it beyond social websites and think of it with larger corporations.  It is one thing for Yahoo!, Microsoft, or Google to accept an OpenID protocol, but entirely another with your bank, utilities, and investment websites start to accept it.  Think about all the different online accounts you manage, how many of them can you manage with the same login and password.  I "try" to use the same information for most of my sites, however, it doesn't work that way always.  Can it be more convenient?  Yes. 

However, it has several impacts beyond just logging in. Security, fraud issues, and framework maturity are still outstanding for other major corporations ot adopt it.  But think about a level of websites beyond blogs, but not quite your financial institutions.  Can associations adopt this and make it work?  Of course!  Can media websites adopt this an make it work? Of course!  Currently over 22,000 websites accept OpenID (including this blog) as a form of identification.  It is projected that this number of sites will reach close to 50,000 by the end of this year.  So if you have a login/register process for your website, why aren't you looking at something that will make it easier for users to manage their account with your site?  Take a look at offering OpenID as an alternative to your current login procedures.  

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

Yesterday Feedbuner announced that they launched a new stats application that is the direct result of their BlogBeat acquisition earlier this year. I've had a chance to integrate it into this Web site and have been thoroughly impressed with what it has to offer. Now let me say that this isn't necessarily a full-blown analytics replacement, but for bloggers this is one sweet deal -- RSS & Blog stats in one location. Feedburner rolled out all the important stat information like:

• Average Daily Visitor
• Top Pages
• Incoming Traffic Sources
• Outgoing Traffic Links
• Visitor Information (browser, city, OS, etc.)

Overall, it is looking like a great addition to their free services.

Originally published December 17, 2006 at LLRX.com

The end of the year is closing in fast and you will undoubtedly ready many "year in review" articles this month. Rather than writing a column referring to what we covered this past year, I want to get you thinking about next year, so you can start the year off right - with a strategic plan for your website that is integrated into other firm goals for 2007.

Reviewing Your Current Website

Hindsight is always 20/20, so – what didn't you accomplish with your website last year? Do those unaccomplished goals still hold value within the scope of your overall marketing strategy? If so, do you want to make sure these goals figure prominently in your plans for next year?

In following with what website plans were not implemented, did you perhaps add a new feature or features that failed to generate the response you anticipated or simply did not work? To what can you attribute this lack of success?

Looking at what you have done and how your website has contributed to your overall goals and marketing efforts will help you to focus your plans for improvements and enhancements for 2007. Review all aspects of your website, from design to content to traffic statistics to clients who engaged your services through the site. Having a complete picture of what happened over the course of the last twelve months will provide you with valuable data. 

The next step in this evaluation process is to draw up a short list of ideas and changes that you want to make to your website in the next year and put it aside. Then take a look at the competitive landscape that surrounds you.

Competitive Analysis

Knowing what you have worked on over the last twelve months is a good starting point, but information about what your competitors have accomplished is an essential component of your future planning process.  Has your competition taken specific business away from you? Is another firm or practice providing a service that is within your field of expertise? Do other firms have value-added services that you offer but have not properly communicated or marketed, or that you can enhance to extend the range of your services to clients? Remember, you do not have to be the first to offer a online service or implement a technology application (such as a blog, wiki or an extranet).  The objective is to determine how to implement one or more of these applications in a manner which keeps you competitive and expands your services.

Ideas that you will want to consider include the following?

• coordinated offline and online branding
• e-mail updates on topical subject matters
• client portals
• web-based client intake forms

After taking a quick look at your competitors within the context of the "marketplace" (location, industry, etc.), you can add more context and content to your wish list of ideas to implement over the next year.

Tubetorial, the brainchild of Brian Clark of Copyblogger. Tubetorial is a site that features "Step-by-Step video tutorials for online success." This is one to definitely grab the RSS feed for and to check out. The video quality is great and the content is just as good.

Grab the RSS Feed
Visit Tubetorial

Lots of stuff happening in the Web world lately, but two to note on is that del.icio.us updated their homepage today to include more search options and added thumbnails of the "Hot Now" bookmarks. Pretty cool stuff. Their homepage was updated not too long ago to a much improvement in design and layout. This just continues the trend of great things from del.icio.us with Yahoo! funding. Oh, and a side note is that del.icio.us also has contextual ads now too.

Google opened up the doors on Google Analytics yesterday. I've had a Google Analytics account for a while and found it very useful. I've debated using other types of sources, but my Web host doesn't provide the greatest package out of the box, and I'm not willing to spend the money yet to get something more robust. GA seems to fill the bill for now. Of course I want other features to be added that can help me determine key information about my visitors, but what do you expect from something that is free. Still worth having, so go get your account today.

Recently Google acquired Writely also opened up its doors today for new registrations. The online collaboration tool that allows multiple users to write on a singe document and then export out to RTF or DOC for free is an indispensable tool for those who are not in the same organization who are working on the same document, let alone hate the problems of swapping files in email. This centrally located tool was indispensable for me when working on a recent article with multiple contributors. If you haven't checked it out, you should.
Via: Lifehacker

Larry Bodine reports that some of the clients he is working with are just not getting it right when it comes to their Web sites. In fact, he says 80% of the traffic for his one example came from internal traffic! I've mentioned before here that you must look at your Web site traffic to see where your problem spots are. To review, check out my April 2006 article from LLRX on Is Your Web Site Successful? Tips and Techniques to Get More Out Of Your Web Site.

If you want to learn more about building valuable Web sites, come see me on August 28, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency at the National Business Seminars Internet Strategies for Legal Professionals where I will be discussing Basic Considerations for Marketing Your Firm on the Net which will include a lot about your firm's Web site.

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?