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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Irv and I travel around the country speaking to business groups on how to green-up their marketing and communications.  One of the talks we give is called, “The Ten Commandments of Green Marketing”.  Commandment #7 is “Thou shalt make every employee an advocate.”  Think of it as in-the-trenches viral marketing.  Their voice times twenty (leads, friends, suppliers, you name it).  A little goes a long way.

In the next few weeks, we will examine how Obama took this commandment, and a couple of others I’ll share, and turbo charged it by turning ordinary American’s into advocates.  His primary tools: Inspiration and the Internet.

This week, we begin with one of the most basic rules of marketing, and one that is broken over and over by some of the biggest marketers on Madison Avenue.  But not Obama.    

It’s all about them, not you.

Never before has a candidate molded his message around the people, and not just the politician.  ”Yes, We Can!” became the mantra and millions joined him in the chant.  What he did was ignite the personal power of Americans by making his mantra our own.  A story where we could fill in the blanks.

Take Barack’s “This Is Your Victory” speech:

“This is our moment.  This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth:  That out of the many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope; and where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.” 

Inspiration squared.  Now times that by a million American’s making it their own in hometowns across our land and you have an election won by the people and for the people.  Brilliant! 

Next week: How Obama used the internet to drive his message home. – and you can too.               

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