admin November 10th, 2008

Never before has the internet been as utilized for a political campaign as it has in the past few months.

A wide range of media was used, by Barack Obama in particular, to not only inform but to connect to the American voters. Not only America, but the entire world was kept in the know of Obama and McCain’s campaign, and I would hazard a guess that never before has so many non-Americans taken such a keen interest in US politics. Yes, we all have a stake in the elections, whoever is in that White House has the power to change all of our lives, but without the internet I doubt such a wide demographic of people would have taken such a keen interest.

After all is said and done it is clear that political marketing will never be the same again.

The internet was one of Barack Obama’s most valuable marketing tool; not only did he use it as a channel to spread his campaign message, he utilised its potential to connect to the voters, raise funds and to advertise his supporters, many of them celebrities.

The centre of Obama’s campaign was his own online social network, where supporters can join, find local events, arrange events and socialise. Reaching the voters on this level was an influential aspect of the Obama campaign, you can find him on over 16 different social media sites. Look at campaign photos on Flickr, participate in heated debate on Digg, watch him in action on YouTube, everything that could help you understand him and his campaign is at our finger tips.

It may or may not come as a surprise to you to learn that Barack Obama has over 3,029,000 supporters on Facebook, making his official page the most popular on the entire site, he did in fact have a total of 12 campaign pages on Facebook alone . With John McCain only having a mere 617,000 supporters it is no surprise Obama got the votes. Social networking sites enabled him to target specific demographic groups and played an influential role in Obama’s campaign, sites such as FaithBase, Black Planet, LinkedIn, AsianAvenue, My.Batanga, and MiGente put Obama in touch with the voters on a level they were comfortable with.

Admittedly the internet cannot replace good ole grassroots campaigning, but if done cleverly, as Obama did, then it can get the message across in a matter of clicks, and raise some money at the same time! Both candidates websites included a facility for visitors to donate money online, and bolstered by his popular status on the social media sites Barack Obama raised 87% of his total funds through the internet. In January alone Obama raised $28 million from the internet.

Perhaps the biggest addition of the entire campaign has to be the fact that Obama himself regularly participates  in the campaign online activity, creating exclusive videos for his social site and personally writing emails are all various factors that helped him create a trusting relationship between him and his supporters which can be the winning factor come election day.

Much of the sophisticated marketing practices seen in the election can be adopted by companies. Paying time and attention to your corporate site; using open communication and finding your potential customer in their own habitat (the social sites) can all result in action; be it voting, buying your product, or arranging a meeting- Barack Obama won the presidential election, your website can win greater sales and profit!

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