Obama’s weapons of mass dissemination.

The US Census Bureau says that 72.5% Americans are using the Internet on a regular basis. That’s almost a quarter of a billion users. Through “word-of-mouse”, this extremely fertile territory gives them the capability of sharing mass amounts of information in a mille-second.  

Never before has a candidate wielded the power of Web 2.0 like Obama.  And never before could they.  Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Flickr – many of these platforms didn’t even exist back in 2004. But I must commend Obama and his relatively lean group of tech-heads; they took these tools to a whole new level.  Not just by disseminating his message in mass amounts (that’s so 1990’s), but by encouraging users — or better yet, voters — to take his message and make it their own. 

I remember my almost daily messages from Michelle Obama.  How did she get my email anyway?  Some of her messages I forwarded to friends (there’s that viral thing at work).  But this is just the tip of the iceberg.  The campaign also provided supporters with a multiple tools and asked them over and over and over to get involved.  From easy-to-use how-to’s to asking for a $25 donation to unrestricted permission to share, post and re-purpose campaign content, the Obama frenzy grew and sucked you in.  Vive de viral!

“The Obama campaign embraced this new, open society.  Unlike most of the publishing, entertainment and music industries today, the campaign encouraged the rampant re-purposing of content and thus started a movement that took on a life of its own,” wrote Jalali Hartman, CEO and founder of Yovia.com.  “This distinction gave his supporters the drive and resources to grow the community for him… [He] strengthened his community members by providing tools that would help them to be more successful; he empowered them by refusing to micro-manage and asking them to do it themselves.”  Can you imagine Madison Avenue doing that?   

This is green marketing at its finest.  Full out transparency that builds a community of wired-in supporters by building trust. 

How did his viral campaign reach you? We want to know!

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