What?! An Obama Online Campaigning Mistake?
Most politicos concede that the 2008 Obama presidential campaign re-defined online political fundraising and mobilization.
Could it be that the “B Team” is running his online campaigning in 2012?
Video-Commerce.org recently ran this article, What You Can Learn from Obama’s Video Email Marketing Mistakes. The piece criticizes an variety of mis-steps, from truthfulness (or not) to technique … see if you agree.
The article also provides five video marketing tips for political campaigns, but in fact they probably have relevance to your online video efforts …
1. Be entirely truthful from the start. [Uh Huh.]
2. Cut down the extras steps (or remove them entirely). [Yep. Article mentions enabling the video to be watched within the email, echoing this Agitator post awhile back.]
3. Put out a short version and a long version. [OK]
4. Create a user community of fellow video enthusiasts around your video. [Perhaps his best point: “People respond well to videos of other people like them who have something compelling to say around a shared experience. Consider setting up a YouTube channel just for users who want to share their own videos that relate to yours. There are tons of people out there that like to speak their mind and share their experiences.”]
5. Announce live video chats in your email. [Chats are OK if your nonprofit has charismatic spokespeople!]
So, do you think the Obama online campaign messed up?
Tom
P.S. BTW, US presidential candidates have spent $30 million on the web through March 2012, according to this infographic.