When politics can teach business about communication

OK, everything that happens in the States sooner or later impacts the UK and the newly elected leader's economic stimulus might just help world financial recovery.

But even if so far you feel unmoved by the culture change in Washington, there is one big lesson that business leaders in particular can learn from the Obama phenomenon - and it started well before he reached the White House.

He, and his team, ran one of the most awesomely effective marketing communications strategies so far seen in the 21st century. More importantly, it worked.

It was not so much how he defeated John McCain and the Republicans in the general election, but how this relatively unknown senator took on and beat the established Democratic machine behind Hilary Clinton in the primaries that was so impressive.

In part, he did it (and this is well documented) by harnessing modern media techniques, in particular the internet, to reach ordinary people and to bring them onside. He also hired some of the smartest people from the world of new technology to help him.

It is not too simple to suggest that Team Obama has provided a blueprint that anyone in the people business, with a marketing message to get out, can now borrow from.

The fact that Obama had a 25-year-old called Chris Hughes, who happened to be one of the founders of Facebook, on the payroll as "director of online organizing" didn't hurt the cause. That's not the sort of expertise that the rest of us can easily access, but it's a clue to where we should perhaps be looking.

Central to the Hughes/Obama approach was understanding people's behaviour and developing online systems that helped individuals do what they wanted to do. For them it was about political involvement, but it's just as relevant for helping people to go out and enjoy themselves.

A vital point is that the Obama campaign had specific objectives in mind. Harnessing the internet and the power of social networking was a means to that end - not an end in itself

All the current chat directed at hospitality executives about why you should sign up to Twitter or Facebook or YouTube sometimes misses the point. Playing with them is just a fad; using those communities effectively for a defined marketing need is when it gets interesting. You may need someone who knows what they are doing, as Obama's team needed Hughes, to help out.

You could do worse that ask a big international concern like Coca-Cola about how it supports social networking groups who are fans of its brand to boost its profile around the globe.

The interesting thing about Facebook's Chris Hughes is that he is not a 'techie', rather someone who likes to work out technology's possibilities.

What the Obama campaign did was develop online social networking tools that allowed committed grass-root voters to become activists. It wasn't just about capturing names, but helping those people become actively involved.

By the end of the election campaign last year, volunteers had used my-barack-obama.com to create 2 million profiles, plan 200,000 events, post 400,000 blogs and raise $30 million.

That's some scale, but it demonstrates the potential for any organisation. Even if you might not fully 'get it', there are plenty of people (potential customers, if you want to look at it like that) who do.

There is a huge catalogue of books and magazine articles out there, many on the web, explaining and analysing the Obama marketing and communication triumph. But there are also some simple, yet valuable tips that can easily be pulled out that will help anyone embarking on the social networking trail.

One is to be patient, as networks need to mature - not everything is instantaneous on the internet. Another is to take customer feedback seriously, something that should resonate with every retailer. The example from the political field was over Obama's stance on wiretapping. He had a supporter revolt, but he didn't change his policy, and neither did he ignore the opponents. He responded directly online addressing the issues.

If there is one motto to take away for your own collection of management quotes, it is this from a senior Obama media adviser: "People now expect to be able to communicate their concerns. If you respond, they'll keep coming back to you."

It is not the detail of the Obama experience that is really important, but the way new approaches to doing things can change a whole enterprise. It is about providing access to information and communication, creating online relationships - and after all in the business world, creating relationships is what selling is all about.

In essence it is about making life easier for people, whether potential political activists or restaurant and pub customers.

Of course, those in the hospitality industry with the most to gain from this US case study might be our trade associations, who are not experiencing the best of times currently. If they want to be more effective at politics where better to learn?

The Obama Democrats helped their supporters to organise online. It was not about putting everything through the centre, but allowing potential activists to organise themselves. Their easy-to-use networking website allowed supporters to create groups, plan events, raise funds, connect with one another and download information and advice on how to do all those things.

The truth for all of us is that technological advances, and the internet and social networking are just elements of it, are part of day-to-day life which we need to keep up with and learn to exploit.

My Easter holiday reading was a book called The Numerati by Stephen Baker, a recommendation from US restaurant expert Jim Sullivan. Baker is a BusinessWeek journalist who maps out how more and more personal information is being collected on us every time we Google on our PC, swipe a credit card or make a mobile call.

More importantly, he describes how a new maths-based intelligentsia, "The Numerati", are devising new ways to use that data to predict and influence our behaviour in a whole range of situations. Frightening on the one hand, thought-provoking on the other, particularly over how businesses might develop the techniques - but something we can't ignore.

Having helped the launch of both Obama and Facebook, Chris Hughes says, in an interview with Fast Company magazine, that he is now looking at how to make technology less 'obsessive' and simpler for everyone to use.

Interestingly, he warns, having just reluctantly started to Twitter, about people becoming over-connected and that the internet can under-emphasise the real world. Businesses trying to tap the technology often miss the point, he says.

"It doesn't matter if it's a company or a campaign - you build around commonality. If it's real people and real communities, then it's valuable. Otherwise it's just playing around online." I guess that electing a new president is pretty real.

First published in M&C Report newsletter, May 2009