The following is an excerpt of Barack 2.0: Barack Obama’s Social Media Lessons for Business
This book and its accompanying interactive online companion addendum make up the definitive reference on the use of social media as it applies to small business. Brent Leary and David Bullock developed these collections of lessons over the course of 12 months. There are currently no restrictions on the use of procedures or principles, public or private.
What is Barack 2.0?
We hope the lessons contained in this workbook will help you understand the impact a social media strategy can have on businesses of any size. This is not about politics. This workbook is about viewing Barack Obama’s campaign use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites from a business perspective. Democrats, Republicans and/or Independents can use these lessons alike. It’s about understanding how we can use technology to meaningfully connect with people to build long-lasting relationships, turning clicks into customers, and using content to convert strangers into collaborators. These are the true lessons that we can take away from Barack Obama’s improbable rise from obscurity to the presidency.
How to Use Barack 2.0
The tools and principles included in this workbook will serve to work for your business to win friends and influence millions. Social media is a blanket term used to describe any of several online platforms that utilize the technology of the internet to facilitate social interaction through written, visual, or audible communication.
Examples of social media methods include blogging, podcasts, forums, online press releases, and social networking platform sites like Facebook and Twitter. The use of social media as a marketing tool has quickly become prominent in the modern business world, and it can be an extremely effective way to promote products and services to a targeted audience. Websites function as a static billboard to promote your products, services, or ideas, but social media has created an opportunity for dynamic dialogue with your audience. The dialogue allows for interaction and personal connection. There is simply no other presentation of these principles with as much power and flexibility as Barack 2.0.
Social media marketing has several advantages over traditional marketing strategies.
Efficient – Unlike many traditional marketing methods, social media marketing provides an instant connection between you and your target audience. As soon as you create content and place the information up on the internet, it immediately becomes easily available to a large number of people.
Affordable – Social media marketing is extremely cost-effective when compared to other marketing methods. Many social networking platforms charge little or no fee to register, allowing you to utilize their services to locate and interact with your target audience without having to spend large amounts to do so.
Effective – Social media allows your information to become available to millions of people through the internet. It can be used to reach very specific niches, ensuring that your marketing is attracting the attention of people who will be interested in what you have to say.