Barack Obama Embraces the Power of the Internet: Sales Lessons for Small Businesses
The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate has truly embraced Internet technology! Barack Obama won the primaries in Iowa, North Dakota and Montana! His campaign for him raised over $300 million dollars during the Democratic primary campaign! He defeated the well-known US Senator Hillary Clinton! Through the use of social media and web 2.0 tools, Barack connected with millions of potential Democratic voters and raised millions of dollars. How did he do it? Why was he so successful? How does this relate to you and your business?
Brent Leary, a CRM expert, speaker, popular columnist, and award-winning blogger who hosts a popular Internet show, “Tech for Business Sake,” says, “He can make history if he becomes our next president. Not only for being the nation’s first African-American president, but he is also known as the first potential president of customer relationship management (CRM).You can also consider him as the first president of social networks based on the intelligent use of the Web by part of his campaign. Brent wrote a comment in Black Enterprise Magazine. Also, he created a great slideshow on Share Slide. Recently, Brent hosted a recent webinar titled “Barack Obama’s Social Media Lesson for Small Businesses” with popular successful business development expert, David Bullock.
Clearly, Barack Obama has adopted a new media strategy and it is having a positive impact on his political campaign! For example, he is everywhere on the Internet! He Announced his candidacy through the web! Barak’s Blog! A blog is a website that contains the personal thoughts and observations of an individual. Millions of people read your political views and opinions online! Barack is doing podcasts too! A podcast is a video or audio file that can be downloaded from the Internet. He has a YouTube channel with over 1,145 videos! On one video in particular, it had 1.2 million views and over 4,230 comments! More than fifteen million people have seen a music video by singer and producer Will.I. Am. that encourages people to vote for Barack! Plus, people can download video clips of Senator Obama to their cell phones every day! “I Got a Crush on Girl”, a popular music video about a woman’s crush on Senator Obama, has received a lot of attention! It has recorded over almost 9 million views and over 42,000 comments! Amber Lee Ettinger, the “Obama girl” in the video has 115 videos on YouTube! Barack has harnessed the power of the moving image and successfully applied it to his campaign! Imagine if more entrepreneurs learned this new technology and adapted it for their own marketing campaigns. What would be the impact on sales? How could YouTube benefit your business?
YouTube is not the only network that has been successful. Barak is also active on other online social networks! He has over a million friends and supporters on his Facebook page! Barack tweets. I mean, he’s using Twitter. Twitter is microblogging. Subscribers can communicate and stay connected with friends and associates by sending short messages. Barack has more than 39,594 followers who keep track of his daily activities. Similarly, he tracks 40,872 people! How many people does Senator Hillary connect with? She Solo 4148 and doesn’t follow anyone! What does that communicate to potential voters? What would happen if more entrepreneurs actively participated in business-oriented social networks? How many more clients, strategic partners, alliances and connections could you make? How would this improve your sales?
The Obama campaign has created over 123 widgets! These viral agents add themselves to any website or blog to share their vision, mission, and message of change! Widgets are mini websites that contain specific and unique information. Over 4,150 video widgets, 3,252 news widgets, and 3,240 convention widgets have been installed on websites or blogs! That’s over 10,642 enthusiastic supporters and fans who have placed an “Obama Button” on their website or blog! Conservatively, if just 100 people saw this widget, it would produce over 1.6 million more views for Barack! What if those visitors installed it on their websites too! The viral impact for Barack would be huge! What does this mean? What would be the business impact if entrepreneurs had widgets promoting their products and services? Especially how would you benefit from exposure?
Additionally, Senator Obama sends out daily emails and press releases that are distributed every day to supporters, community organizers, friends, politicians, and financial contributors. Millions of people receive daily information and updates on Barack’s activities, speeches, opinions, viewpoints and campaign stops. If more business owners use the power of press releases, e-newsletters, and emails, how would this improve their company and brand awareness?
Most people would agree that Senator Obama’s new media strategy has been quite successful! How has this relatively unknown US senator from Illinois improved his digital image and web presence? If you do a search for Barack Obama’s name on Google, you’ll get almost 57 million search results! Barack’s viral marketing campaign has been a success, not only in the United States but around the world! If you do a search on his name, company, or keywords that describe his business, what search results do you get? If it’s not on the front page, guess who’s getting the business? Your competition! By understanding, embracing, and harnessing the power of the Internet, every entrepreneur can be more successful!
What does this mean for you and your business? How would this affect your sales and business if you adopted a new media strategy and action plan? If you are not actively using the Internet to attract potential customers, start now! You can’t afford not to start now! Your business could depend on it! There are many opportunities to build your web presence and digital image. You must start now! Ignorance is not an option. Don’t let the Internet and others define you, your brand and company! Take the control!
Here are some suggestions:
o Perform a search on your name, company and keywords.
o Learn more about the Internet and how to use it to your advantage.
o Start reading business blogs and press releases.
o Discover interesting videos in your industry or profession.
o Join a social network to connect with potential customers and referral sources.
o Start blogging your personal views and observations within your industry.
o Start audio and video podcasts.
o Start writing articles and submitting them to directories that will search for your target market.
o Start an electronic newsletter.
o Start a monthly or weekly press release promoting your company.
o Review your business website and its SEO parameters and guidelines.
o Offer free trials and tools to encourage prospects to try your products or services.
o Find out what web 2.0 tools you could use in your business and start using them now!