I have been telling friends this for a while: Obama (his campaign) is the most powerful and far-reaching Web 2.0 business in the world.
The fact that he has gone from a virtual nobody to a near land slide presidential victory (typing this at 10:45 EST on election night) is absolutely transformative. He is reported to have raised 150 million dollars in one month. Which includes 632,000 new donors, added to his three million established donors. These are transformative feats, game changers.
An article in NY Times explored this issue by interviewing some of the Obama campaign officials.
“Mark McKinnon, a senior adviser to President Bush’s campaigns in 2000 and 2004…”(this) year campaigns leveraged the Internet in ways never imagined. The year we went to warp speed. The year the paradigm got turned upside down and truly became bottom up instead of top down.”
That’s right, hyper speed and bottom up. Sounds a lot like the Wikipedia cycle and a lot less like the cable/news cycle. Though, to be honest, Obama charted a road in the middle. Able to reach voters where they were are give them what they want. For me it was my cell phone and youtube. For others it was door-to-door, and still others was on tv and through debates.
Most of the time it seemed as if the McCain campaign just ignored this sound advice “reach voters where they were and give them what they want”. As if the Internet and its various capabilities is still a side show. Even after months of Obama turning the tide first against Hillary Clinton and then John McCain, they still refuse to accept.
Accept it or not. It’s here and its happening.