The Full Barack Obama Social Media Strategy!

What brands can learn from Barack Obama and his social media marketing approach? Get inspired here.

Last week I was invited to speak at the SRM Guru meeting in Amsterdam to present the case study of Barack Obama’s brilliant brand interaction and great consumer connectivity program.

At 19:30 hours I kicked of with the song: It’s a New Day to get in the mood again. The 125 marketers were really inspired by Obama’s strategy after 90 minutes. The aftermath Q&A lasted another 30 minutes.

Barack Obama social media strategy 2008: SlideShare

On request of the participants, we decided to share the presentation as hand-out. Although I’m a speaker and not a writer, I created my short story in the comments. However, if you download the presentation, you will be able to read the footnotes in the PowerPoint more convenient.

On the request of SRM to do the Barack Obama case, my co-worker and ViralBlog co-author Paul van Veenendaal did research for almost 2 weeks.

He delivered a detailed Barack Obama study containing over 200 slides! I had to cut it down to 126 slides to be able to stick to my 90 minutes program! So my special thanks to you Paul!

I also want to thank my co-workers from LaComunidad, SocialMedia8 and ViralTracker for delivering their input and cases within the killing deadlines.

To my friend Michael Moon, President at Gistics and author of bestseller Firebrands I want to say: Thank you for your extensive sessions in San Francisco and Amsterdam. I admire your thought leadership and most of all: your patience to keep coaching me the last 8 years.

I also need to thank Jungle Minds. Our partnership and your input sharpened my vision on usability, e-commerce, online sales funnels and online conversions.

Off course I cannot forget our partner Metrixlab. Your brand tracking studies for our clients in the last couple of years, have delivered tangible and rock solid proof that our brand interaction programs do revitalize brands.

Special thanks to our clients. We do understand that our strategic vision, requests for long term brand interaction programs, demands for serious (brand) tracking research and disruptive approach were being perceived as a bit “unusual” in the beginning of our relationship. But you and your stakeholders rewarded us with your support and trust.

Thank you to some very special people at WPP and GroupM in London, Paris, Milan, NYC and Amsterdam. No need to mention names. You bought into our “strange” social media marketing vision, with your trust and great support.

Last but not least, many thanks to the Obama campaign team and Barack Obama! Your DNA, fresh approach and campaign not only inspired millions of people around the globe.

You might not even know, but your brand interaction strategy also inspired many brands and a large part of the global marketing community. You really showed us It’s a New Day and Yes We Can Too! So I say: Barack Obama, Marketer of the Year!

The invitations to do this case study at other events and brands were greatly appreciated and accepted. For information and bookings please connect to Speakers Academy.

This review (in Dutch) of the Barack Obama campaign strategy presentation at the SRM Guru meeting (at January 29 2009) was written by Melanie Thijm of Brainwork.

Some books that really inspired me:
Firebrands, Building Brand Loyalty in the Internet Age by Michael Moon.
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.
Jammin by John Kao.
Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell.