Before we get into the marketing aspect, I would like to say that I am glad the election is over and the verdict is here. Although Obama won the election and I personally wanted Obama in the White House, I applaud John McCain for his gracious speech last night. November 4th 2008 will be remembered forever as this is the first time a black president has been elected to the White House. Its a proud moment for all of us as this marks the end of segregation which still prevails among many. We can proudly say that we are now The United States of America, despite color, gender, race and sexuality among many other things.
Sorry for the rant. Lets get to the marketing aspect of this article now. Most people think that social media simply doesnt work for certain businesses. They don’t seem to figure out how to tap into social media crowd to promote their products and services. Well, if a politician can market himself on social media I can almost bet any business has a chance to make it on social media. The fact is that there needs to be a clear objective. A definite set of plans. Barack Obama’s social media campaign was one of the best internet campaign that has been ever done by any politician.
Here are 5 ways on how Presidential – Elect Barack Obama’s marketing team carried out one of the best social media marketing campaign ever,
- Wiki ( please note that this has either been closed or is a private team workspace ) : The team used Wiki’s to organize volunteers and update each other on new happenings and such online.
- Twitter : Twitter which is considered to be one of the best communication and social tool was used to update the twitter community. Considering the fact that twitter has a huge user base, this platform was used very actively and effectively.
- FaceBook Application : FaceBook is one of the most popular social networking site. Boasting more than 1 million users and sitting right behind MySpace, not using this channel would have been a big loss. The campaign created a Facebook app for users to share the news items, blog posts, speeches, and videos that most inspired you to support Barack Obama.
- Social Network : Barack Obama’s team created their own branded social network where people could collaborate and network with each other. This allowed them to build a sense of community among their supporters.
- Blog : One of the best way to tap into the social web is via blogging. The team made the best use of it by staying connected with supporters and informing them what was going on behind the scenes.
Those were some of the ways our 44th President Barack Obama utilized social media to his advantage. Seriously, if politics works on social media your business most certainly will. Give it a try. Create a presence, incluence and build a network so as to reach out and promote yourself.
Obama did a great job in get his message across to the youth of America. His campaign identified how young people get their information these days and used it to their advantage. Without a doubt one of the better run campaigns in our lifetime.