What You Can Learn from Barack Obama
Don’t worry, this isn’t really a political post. So whoever you voted for, if you voted, you’ve done a good thing.
This is about how Barack Obama and his team used technology in a way that was unprecedented and had never been used before. And about how that use of technology seemed to have worked and in fact, may have played a part in his eventual winning of the 2008 U.S. presidential contest.
First and foremost, Obama and his team mobilized people on the web. They reached out not only through their website, but through MySpace and Facebook and Twitter and many other social marketing websites. They used these sites to keep people updated on debate dates and times, to ask for donations, as well as to keep people updated on the latest news about their candidate.
And people responded. Obama has been called a “rock star.” Maybe because he’s used the web in a way to mobilize people that only musicians have seemed to have understood.
But he took it a step further. He stayed in contact with his “fans” and they were always aware of what was going on in his campaign. This made the campaign transparent and everyone who supported him felt they were part of the greater cause. He included his “fans” in nearly every way and kept them engaged.
Text messaging also played a part in the election. Text messages were sent on a regular basis to those who signed up for them to also keep people interested and engaged. And on election day, everyone got messages reminding them to vote, even including details as to when polls opened and closed in their state.
Musicians and bands could learn a lot from a politician. I’m sure that’s the first time that’s been said!
Reach out to your fans… engage them… keep them interested and never stop having conversations with them. Respond to emails, send them messages, update them on every little detail that you can.
The result? You’ll get fans that are more likely to be involved with your act, as well as get fans that are more likely to care enough about you to pay for your music, merchandise and shows.