What The 2008 Presidential Run Can Teach Us About Social Marketing

Writing by Social Marketing Journal on Thursday, December 6, 2007 Leave a comment

Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins has been on a presidential campaign kick for the past few weeks. I must admit, the thought was well intentioned. The results, however, have been disastrous.

According to Mark, only five presidential candidates are even close to getting social media at all:

It baffles me that only five candidates out of the entire field used their social presences and web sites to actually speak to the public on their terms (Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Senator Dodd, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel).

This should come as no surprise, but I’ve been impressed with the way Ron Paul has used social media to garner support. It may have been intentional, or it could have just been some kind of cosmic accident – like the Big Bang. Probably, it was because he appeals to younger voters who are tired of the “business as usual approach” in Washington and who are a bit more technologically savvy than their older peers. Hey, whatever it takes.

But what can your business learn from the candidates? Here’s a list:

• For starters, don’t be like Alan Keyes and Rudy Giuliani. Get a presence.
• Don’t be like John Edwards or Hillary Clinton and think that quantity is better than quality.
• Don’t be like Barack Obama and consider social media as some aspect of the Borg and if you can just get to the central nervous mechanism then the rest of the universe will follow – that’s not how social media works.
• Don’t be like Mitt Romney and think that participation is enough.
• And don’t be like Romney and John McCain, who seem to think that learning about the ins and outs of how it all works isn’t necessary – in today’s online business climate, it’s necessary.
• Finally, all the candidates (except perhaps Ron Paul) can teach us to stop trying to control the message.

The truth about social media marketing is that you can’t control the message and you can’t control the outcome. But you can encourage the direction of your message by simply “putting it out there.” This is where Ron Paul’s campaign has shined. His supporters are doing all the leg work. Once you put the message into the hands of the right market, let the market speak and don’t interfere. Only when the market comes to you should you then interact.

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