Are Your a Master Marketer like Obama?

Here are 7 lessons on marketing successfully using social media, Barack Obama’s way. . .

Lesson #1: Go Where Your Market Is

If you’re going to use social media as your marketing platform of choice then you’ll have to know where your target market networks. If your market is the entire United States like Obama then you might want to set-up accounts on every major social network. However, my advice is to start networking locally on at least 3 major networks and branch out from there [if necessary].

Namechk Service

Look at the graphic to the left. Using a service called, Namechk, we can easily see that the username, “BarackObama” has been secured for around 90% of all major social networks (secured accounts are highlighted in red). Use this tool to see if your name is available wherever your potential customers are and start building your brand.

Are Your Engaging with Your Market?

Lesson #2: Engage with Your Market

The Obama campaign had a dedicated staff of 30 people to head up his social media/networking campaign. What this equated to was, someone being there at all times to answer inquiries, reply to questions, update content, and interact with people across every major social network.

Tip: Don’t just set up social accounts and forget about them . . . set up a command post! Publish frequent/fresh content and engage with people that respond to your brand. You may not have a staff of 30 but you can still monitor your brand by using tools such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite which allows you to update multiple accounts at once.

What does it really mean to engage? Here are a few tips;

• Post quizzes
• Put out polls and surveys – do you have a WordPress blog? Give Poll Daddy a try. The folks that made WordPress created it so you know it’s cool.
• Offer contests
• Start conversations
• Jump into other people’s conversations related to your brand, product, or service
• Offer advice
• Do free online consultations
• Share content related to your brand, product, service, or that which is helpful to your market
• Include your network in major decisions such as article titles, website design, or other elements that impact your business. Doing so allows others to interact with your company and brand on a deeper level.

Lesson #3: Give the keys of Your Brand to Your Fans

One of the key strategies that the Obama campaign implemented was the way they established Obama’s brand of ‘Change’ and let their followers “play with it”. They set up the social network, my.barackobama.com which became a “myspace” for his supporters.

The plan was definitely more effective than they could have anticipated. The site allowed people to start groups and share media which lead to offline activities; such as volunteering at events, rallying, and the spread of Obama’s name. How can you harness the power of social media for your brand in this fashion?

• Start a ning social network of your own and allow followers to interact with each other and spread your brand.
• Start a Facebook fan page, post exclusive content, and encourage your fans to share the content with their Facebook friends. Need a little help? Here’s a great article from The Social Media Examiner Blog about, How to Better Engage Facebook Fan Page ‘Fans’
• Got a WordPress blog and want to jump-start your own social network? Download the Buddypress plugin pack and let readers become members, set-up profiles, forums, blogs, and more!
  Note: this plugin used to only work for WordPress MU installs, but now works with standalone WordPress installations . . . so go crazy . . .

Lesson #4: Create Value for Your Market

Obama didn’t just let his supporters organize events for his campaign . . . he attended his supporter’s events! According to Wikipedia, “On February 2, 2007, Obama attended a rally at George Mason University organized by “Students for Barack Obama,” a group that began on Facebook, with several thousand in attendance.” His initial acknowledgement of the group and presence at their event created value, grew his market share, and instilled loyalty into everyone in attendance. You can do the same by organizing:

• Tweet-ups - if you have an active Twitter following take the conversations offline and organize a meet-up at a local restaurant, bar, library, or other venue.
• Webinars, tele-conferences, seminars – these events can be very inexpensive or swing the other way depending on how you set it up. Whichever method you pursue, give out valuable information, answer tough questions, and connect with your followers, fans, and market on a totally new level.

Lesson #5: Build Your List by Offering Value

Remember when you got news that Obama was set to tell the world who his running mate was via text message? The only requirement being you had to sign-up for his website to be the first to receive the news.

Word of the text message revealing hit every social media outlet such as Facebook, Youtube, blogs, and more. Garner the same buzz over a product or service announcement by building your list in the same fashion:

1. Offer an Item of Value for an email sign-up

2. Make sign-up easy – don’t ask for too much information

3. Selling a product? Offer a sneak peak, free sample, or exclusive review for an email sign-up.

4. Offering a service? Give out an exclusive discount or coupon for email sign-up.

5. Be creative and don’t put a limit on how you create value for your followers, fans, or supporters. It’ll only breed loyalty to your brand.

Lesson #6: Form Strategic alliances

The Obama campaign hired former facebook founder, Chris Hughes who was the online organizer for the campaign and the genius that made Obama’s brand shared, tweeted, and socially effective.

Needless to say, I wouldn’t be writing this article if it wasn’t for Chris joining the Obama team during the campaign days. By forming this strategic alliance, Obama was able to go where no other candidate had been before [and succeed]. Follow his lead by forming your own strategic alliances:

• Guest Blogging – Look for guest blogging opportunities from influential bloggers in your network. Doing so will gain you new readers, grow your blog’s community, and increase your web traffic substantially.
• Use Linkedin – Forge partnerships with like-minded entrepreneurs on Linkedin. If you and someone else offer complimenting products or services [meaning, they work well together not compete against each other], why not partner and advertise to the same market? Linkedin has great features that connect you with these kind of groups and entrepreneurs.

Barack Music Video

Lesson #7: Use Video and Extend Your Reach

The screenshot on the left is a music video produced by the Obama campaign that went viral only hours after it’s release on Youtube.

It’s impossible for Obama to spread his message everywhere all the time but the video did exactly that for him. Video enables people to experience you, your product, service, or message in a totally different way. Here are a few ways you can maximize it for your marketing plan:

Produce a webshow – Highlight your customers, capture testimonials, answer questions, or take live callers. These are just some of the things you can do to create your own show and deliver value to your market.
Record your speaking engagements – By using some standard video editing software you can package your speaking videos into free products or sizzle pieces for events. This will build your credibility as well as garner interest from whomever you give it to.

Final Thoughts

Entrepreneurs can learn a lot from a man that ran his presidential campaign in such an unprecedented way. He connected with millions of people via blogs, social networks, videos, or wherever people gathered socially online. Barack’s team ultimately created this content for the campaign, but the real magic is how he empowered, encouraged, and inspired people to use and share what was put out. What else can we learn from Barack when it comes to social media marketing? How did his campaign engage with YOU across various social networks? Add your two cents in the comments section below.