Some lessons from Inaugural 2.0

Tomorrow, like many, I'll watch Barack Obama be sworn in during the historic inaugural ceremony in Washington.

It's been well documented that the Obama campaign's use of social media gave them an edge in organizing and communicating both in the primaries and in the general campaign.  While I don't think that MySpace was the only factor in his November victory, this seems an appropriate time to talk about some lessons we could take from their use of web 2.0.

Lesson 1 - Give and get information.  Everywhere they went, the campaign gathered email addresses as people attended speeches and events.  They invited those same individuals to join them in the various social media forums.  When you have customers in the door, try to do the same.

Lesson 2 -  It doesn't have to cost a fortune.   Once the information from supporters was in, the campaign used email, Facebook, Twitter and dozens of other platforms to reach out.   This meant the campaign was able to touch followers, daily in many cases, for nearly zero cost.  The biggest expense was the staff it took to generate messages and content.  With marketing budgets tight, you may be able to reduce some costs by moving content from printed form (newsletters, invitations, etc.) to electronic format.

Lesson 3 - Connect your primary website with your social presence.  Even if you don't have the manpower resources to duplicate the content output of the Obama campaign, take a look a their website barackobama.com.  It's a study in organizing and connecting your primary home on the web with your presence on social media sites.  Scroll down the page to the section called Obama Everywhere in the right hand navigation to see what I mean.

Of course there's much more to study if you'd like to take the time.  There are many good articles out there recounting the campaign's social media outreach:

Rolling Stone  - The Machinery of Hope

Black Enterprise - Obama's Lesson in Social Media

The Industry Standard - Did Social Media Decide the U.S. Presidential Election in Obama's favor?

To go even further in depth, check out the blog devoted to covering the campaign's social media efforts: Barack 2.0