How Social Media Relations Empowered Barack Obama’s Campaign

Posted by Gino Cosme

June 6, 2008

Why is a Portuguese South African writing about American politics, you may wonder. Truth is, when the whole Clinton versus Obama race got started, I had very little interest in either. Sure, much like the rest of the world, I kept a brief eye on what was happening. But both Clinton and Obama, in my opinion, would make fine candidates to take over the current republican rule. That to me is what matters the most.

However, as a web and social media consultant, I am always looking for innovative communications strategies across the globe that share valuable lessons on the effective use of social media, social networks and Web 2.0 technologies to communicate effectively and, ultimately, deliver results. And this is where my interest - and respect - for Barack Obama grew. Not only did he passionately campaign offline, penetrating the hearts and minds of the American community, but he brought these interactions, opportunities and messages online, in turn harnessing the very nature that is social media - conversation and community.

From creating personalised profiles and blogging on the Obama website to tapping into the numerous social networking tolls such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlackPlanet, MySpace, even Flickr and YouTube - and there are many more examples - Obama and his campaign managers changed the pyramid of a traditional website strategy. Sure, Hillary Clinton too joined the social media bandwagon, however in comparison, Obama online strategy is miles ahead on so many levels. Most striking of which is that he facilitated community interaction and campaign ownership by proactively sharing information and insight about his campaign’s movements, thoughts and actions. And this is where the genius sits that marketers and communicators should take note of: by empowering communities with information, you allow them to become your brand (or campaign) ambassadors. It’s about letting go of control, believing in a product (or message), and letting the power of word of mouth reign.

Social media and networking strategies take an important benefit into consideration; that people and their online networks offer a lot of value when it comes to executing a campaign that resonates on both a personal, targeted level and across a wide variety of demographics, interests and beliefs. Obama recognised this and subsequently succeeded.

There’s a brilliant article on CIOZone via JD Lasica that delves into this topic deeper.