The Obama Online Standard

President Barack Obama’s campaign became the gold standard for a modern campaign.  No longer is the television ad, supplemented with a radio ad, mixed with a handful of speeches enough.  Americans desire to be engaged and to be engaged on their terms.  The Obama Campaign awakened the sleeping giant that was the American populous by providing a trendy campaign slogan and a web hub to engage everyone in the issues that mattered to them. 

It is also common knowledge that the Democrats have adopted Web 2.0 and social media at a much higher propensity than the Republicans. 

Well Bob McDonnell, the governor-elect of Virginia, must be one quick understudy.  Social Media commentators and politicos alike spoke very highly of the McDonnell campaigns’ “online campaign.

“McDonnell’s internet campaign has been impressively comprehensive, meaning that state and local candidates can look to it as a model for applying the lessons of 2008,” says Colin Delany from epolitics.com.

I had the opportunity to speak with Tucker Martin, Communications Director  for the McDonnell campaign, about the impact social media played in the victory.

“I think the lesson we provide is effective utilization of online and social media is not just for Democrats anymore," Martin said.  A Republican campaign can be equally successful and innovative in utilizing new means of communication in order to more effectively disseminate a message and win a tough campaign in a competitive swing state.”

It is not just the campaigns that must learn quickly the ins and outs of this social media movement, but all aspects of the democratic process must adjust to satisfy the demands of the American populace.

A telling sign is the fact that more Americans turned to Twitter for Election Night ’09 coverage than cable news and its highly opinionated talking heads.  

“With a few exceptions,” political junkie Mike Murphy told Politico, “like [James] Carville on CNN or [Karl] Rove on Fox, I didn’t see people who know anything about elections.”

The ability to follow people on the ground in key areas, providing real-time updates and insight, is much more appealing than listening to pundits pass the time merely speculating. 

For a parting thought, campaigns and politics in general must evolve to the Web 2.0 world or else someone who gets the drill might replace you.

Filed under: Blog-related, Emerging Media, Old World Changing, Social Media in Politics