Wiki-bama

I apologize for putting this up so late, but I found a great article by 'WebProfits' that I think pretty well sums up the success of Barck Obama's campaign. This article lists 6 things that Barack Obama’s "online marketing strategy" did right.

1.) On your first visit to his website, you were immediately asked to join his mailing list. 2.) Every webpage encourages donations. 3.) The "information architecture" is excellent - the website is well laid out and easy to navigate. 4.) Blogs are used to communicate messages 5.) He used to social networking to maximize his exposure 6.) He tapped into mobile marketing.

Similarly, is all about encouraging people to participate. Wikipedia "is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute." Every webpage encourages contributions, whether it be new information or edits of existing info. Wikipedia also has excellent information architecture, and involves people in community discussion.

Barack Obama really paved the way in new campaign tactics when he became the "social networking king." He used the internet to reach out to all people...just like Wikipedia: "Visitors do not need specialized qualifications to contribute...this means that people of all ages and cultural and social backgrounds can write Wikipedia articles." This is exaclty what we covered in class: the difference between expertise and collective intelligence.

Barack Obama even created the Citizen Strategy Think Tank, which invites people to "Help Barack Obama craft the messages and strategy that will make him the 44th President of the United States." How incredible that we live in a time where we can not only write encyclopedia articles, but also give our personal feedback to the president.

"It will take your time, your energy, and your advice - to push us forward when we're doing right, and to let us know when we're not." - Barack Obama, Feb 10th, 2007