A few months ago, I was invited to a forum hosted by the Liberal Party. We had Jo Hansen, US President Obama’s campaign consultant, talk about how Obama won the election. There were a lot of topics covered and it would be one hell of a lengthy post to write everything in just one go. I’ll try to split it up in smaller yet themed articles so that it can be easily read and appreciated better. One of the key messages that Mr. Hansen stressed was that Obama really made it a point to use all the tools available to him at that time.
Social Network Marketing should be one of the basic foundations of online campaigns. It’s not that hard to do, it’s initially free, and it’s just as good as direct mail if utilized correctly. I remember Mr. Hansen talking about how Obama was present in virtually all of the social networks that were popular in the United States. Even if it was a gay dating network, Obama would be there! By simply being there, Obama was able to connect and interact with a lot of niche groups. They maybe small individually but banded together that’s a huge number. The potential for reaching the tipping point is much faster since you’re literally attacking every available channel.
The question is, should we do the same? Well, it really depends on the brand character and on the objective. Ideally, you should be present in the major ones that are being used here in the Philippines: Friendster, Multiply, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, and maybe even the micro blogs -Plurk and Twitter. Always remember that not everyone who is in Friendster will be active in Multiply, or vice-versa. Personally I only update my Facebook account since I prefer the stricter and cleaner lay-out versus Friendster or Multiply. Currently working on updating and fixing the contents of my Multiply and Friendster accounts.
I think this is good advice for Politicians who are gearing up to run in 2010. A lot of them have Facebook accounts, but they’re not present in Multiply or Friendster.
For bloggers, I’ve already written a previous post on how to use Social Networks to drive traffic to your site. You might want to check that out.
By the way, on Monday I’ll be posting a guest article by my colleague, Mon “GM Tristan” Macutay. Mon will be talking about how to tap the power of Youtube.
With the large number of youth (like me) who’s going to vote in the next election, trapos would surely be harnessing the power of social networks. I just hope the youth would be critical in choosing their candidate and would base it on their credentials – not on how colorful or interactive their site are.