How much success can leveraging your personal brand on the internet really bring you? Just ask Barack Obama. One of the two Democratic presidential hopefuls has gone above and beyond what any other politician has accomplished in terms of raising campaign funds and getting his image out to a younger generation, who before now were generally considered politically apathetic.
A lot of Obama’s success so far can be attributed to his ideas of change. These ideas resonate with a great deal of our population, and he used them to attract a large crowd of followers and supporters. But a huge reason Obama is having so much success is because he has acknowledged the strength of online social media and social networking.
Obama’s campaign is most likely the first major campaign that has relied heavily on the internet for both attracting followers and campaign funding. If you pay attention to the web 2.0 world at all, you will see traces of Obama’s campaign everywhere. He is the most followed person on Twitter with 20,457 people seeing his status updates. He has utilized YouTube to a huge extent, littering the site with his campaign ads and videos of his rallies and speeches. Facebook is adorned with numerous Obama support groups as well as an official Barack Obama page with over 750,000 supporters. So why has all of this brought him so much success so far?
He has tapped into a network of citizens who were otherwise disinterested in politics. The younger generations traditionally have not had much say in what happens in Washington, but Obama is succeeding in grabbing their attention using media that these generations accept and use on a daily basis. I’ll admit that in the past I had little or nothing to do with politics, but I have been following the Democratic campaign trail for quite a while now.
One of the best things about using the internet and web 2.0 as a marketing strategy is that people feel involved. People feel that Obama is a partner, not a preacher. Posting a video on YouTube allows people to voice their opinions on relevant subjects. This feeling of involvement and partnership also allows people to feel like they are difference-makers.
Being involved in social media has also allowed Obama to tap into otherwise non-utilized campaign funds. At this point, his team has eclipsed all others in raising money for his campaign. Again, this is because he has involved a whole new demographic in politics, and they feel like they are the difference makers; they are making the changes that Obama is all about.
What do you think about Obama’s campaign? Do you think he has made a good call by utilizing social media? Let me know!
Posted by Griff McGrath 
