It may be a stretch to say that President Elect Barack Obama’s Web 2.0 tactics during his campaign was the single factor in his win, but many experts have expressed that it certainly played a big, big role.
President John F. Kennedy is readily recognized as the President who revolutionized television as a medium to reach constituents. President Elect Obama will most certainly be credited with revolutionizing politics through the use of the World Wide Web.
President Obama’s campaign utilized web 2. 0 tools and mobile technology to organize supporters (fund-raising), advertise to voters, defend against attacks and communicate back and forth to constituents. He instituted an incredible mobile texting campaign by engaging people to text to him so they could get breaking news during the campaign, and then announced his running mate through a text to all of his mobile admirers. In between the announcements and communication the team also instituted a successful fund-raising effort through texts, social networks, and his website to name a few. His campaign also took advantage of YouTube for free advertising. These videos were watched for 14.5 million hours by users who CHOSE to view the videos, as opposed to those of us who were inundated with election television advertisements against our will. Since the election, President Elect Obama has utilized communication through a new website to help him communicate to his constituency as he prepared for today’s inauguration and his presidency. It is suspected that President Obama will continue to utilize communication through the internet to help him stay connected to the public. To demonstrate this, the Obama team has set up Change.gov and The Citizens Briefing Book. The book is a way for regular folks to submit their issues and ideas to a community with the claim that the most popular topics will end up on the Presidents desk. BarackObama.com is also set up to get the public involved by signing up for texts, contributing videos and more.
What should you as a small business take away from all of this? You probably won’t generate millions of leads or get 14.5 million hours of videos time, but a fraction of that is pretty attractive to any small business. Give your consumers the opportunity to interact with your brand and build their enthusiasm. Technology is the most effective way to accomplish that goal. Utilize your website, blog, Facebook, My Space, Linkedin, email leads, etc. to the fullest extent.
As the director of the Iowa Western Community College Small Business Development Center, I invite you to contact us today so that we can help you devise an Internet plan that will engage your customers. We are a free counseling and mentoring service ready and willing to meet with you and help you succeed.