Transforming the Art of Political Communication

A while back, I wrote a post about Tech Campaigns and how those running for office are using social networking to their advantage. With the election now over and our nation reaching historic heights in electing Barack Obama president, we also saw what will be an ushering in of social networking into the White House. In my previous post, I mentioned how Obama's team wasn't just tech savvy, they were tech geniuses. And now that he's been elected president, we could see internet outreach also reach historic heights. The Washington Post writes:

Just as John F. Kennedy mastered television as a medium for taking his message to the public, Obama is poised to transform the art of political communication once again, said Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist who first helped integrate the Internet into campaigning four years ago.

"He's going to be the first president to be connected in this way, directly, with millions of Americans," Trippi said.

The nucleus of that effort is an e-mail database of more than 10 million supporters. The list is considered so valuable that the Obama camp briefly offered it as collateral during a cash-flow crunch late in the campaign, though it wound up never needing the loan, senior aides said. At least 3.1 million people on the list donated money to Obama.

Millions more made up the volunteer corps that organized his enormous rallies, registered millions of voters and held countless gatherings to plug the senator to friends and neighbors. On Election Day, they served as the backbone of Obama's get-out-the-vote operation, reaching voters by phone and at the front door, serving coffee at polling stations and babysitting so parents could stand in line at voting precincts.

After Obama declared victory, his campaign sent a text message announcing that his supporters hadn't heard the last from the president-elect. Obama conveyed a similar message to his staff in a campaignwide conference call Wednesday, signaling that his election was the beginning, and not the culmination, of a political movement.

What's amazing is what he can do with that list now that he's in office.

The process is just beginning, and many questions remain unanswered. The simplest approach might be to convert the campaign organization into an incarnation aimed at 2012 and an anticipated run for reelection, but some inside the Obama team are concerned about appearing too overtly political. Another course could be to create a nonprofit organization. Obama officials said all options would be examined over the coming weeks.

Over the course of the campaign, Obama's e-mail list gathered not only names and contact information, but also details about issues important to those supporters.

In past years, such lists were considered useful tools for political campaigns but not particularly helpful for governing. But Peter Greenberger, manager of political advertising for Google, said such information could be a boon for Obama in building public support for policy proposals.

The White House could "geo-target" ads so they appear online in congressional districts where members remain undecided. Obama could use Internet ads to solicit signatures for petitions, or he could place display and video ads contextually -- so they would appear on the screen next to news coverage of his proposals.

"If there's an article in the New York Times or The Washington Post about health-care legislation," Greenberger said, "the administration or a pro-Obama advocacy organization could run an ad right alongside it."

It truly is amazing: we are in a new communication age and we have a President who is willing to master the technology. What that means is, he also has far more control at shaping his message and his agenda without filters than any other President or any other elected official before him. He has supporters who follow him by the legions on websites such as Facebook and MySpace. Will Obama ultimately be successful at controlling his message and his outreach? Time will tell, but if he does as well as he did during the campaign, there really is no telling how successful he could be as President.

Tomorrow: the GOP counter punch.