In a recent edition of Public Relations Tactics, a PRSA periodical publication for public relations professionals, the chair of the public relations committee of PRSA said that the Obama campaign is the biggest case study of the new communications paradigm. He refers to it as bringing in the “conversation age.”

He is exactly right. The Obama campaign showed the world the power of new communication methods through social networking. Obama and his campaign were able to help form people’s opinions through conversations that took place among a broad range of people. Learning how to successfully participate in these conversations is the new goal for communicators. The PR profession as a whole was impressed with the Obama campaign’s ability to utilize the public media in generating support, raise money, and attract votes. PR practitioners everywhere will be studying the methods and results of his campaign as more brands and companies try to duplicate the positive results.

By using the Internet as a fundraising and organizing tool, Obama was able to organize almost 1,000 phone banking events in the final week of the campaign and 150,000 other events throughout the course of campaigning. His social networking Web site, myBarackObama.com, created by Facebook’s Chris Hughes, received 1.5 million accounts and more than 35,000 groups, according to a Nov.7 article on the Wired web site. He raised a record-breaking $600 million in contributions from more than 3 million people with most of this money donated through the Internet.

Political strategists claim that Hillary Clinton already had most of the Democratic donors sewn up at the beginning of the race, but Obama overcame this through his communications advantages. He was a great speaker, always on message and he knew how to use online technology like never before.

Borrowing from the online fundraising tactics started in 2004 by Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean; Obama achieved unheard of success by engaging millions of people through social networks and then used them to build relationships.

PRSA noted that while Obama’s campaign was revolutionary, it also reinforced some classic lessons:

 The article states that seventy-two percent of newly registered voters voted for Obama. He chose a unique target audience — young people — and stuck to it. The competing Republican Party could not easily relate to that audience.

Using the social media base of a virtual grassroots community, people who became connected through virtual activity, transitioned into a person-to-person grassroots activity. Supporters then even got together in each other’s houses handpainting signs and knocking on doors in neighborhoods.  The power of virtual networks being created by today’s social media outlets is beginning to become apparent and it will have implications for all of us.

The Obama campaign has refocused public relations, says Robert Niles, editor of the University of Southern California Annenberg Online Journalism Review. Niles says that ultimately, it all amounts to a huge challenge for the Public Relations profession to stay vibrant and take advantage of the opportunities available today.

(from PRSA Tactics December 2008, p.9)

 

Have you used new media to start your own grassroots group? What worked or didn’t work?