I attended a discussion from Michael Slaby the Deputy Director of New Media then Chief Technology Officer for Obama for America. Doc Searls, David Weinberger and others were in attendance in a room of 20 or so. Michael approached the discussion with candor and the type of reflective knowing that comes from someone who had worked on the campaign for 603 days while taking only 5 days off.

A few key points below with my thoughts in italics:

• The campaign’s success came from its authenticity and values rather than tactics. This means that the team acted from a place of values rather than simply memorizing tactics.
• Empower supporters to become your best advocates: “People trust other people about you than you about you.” This works with social media marketing with businesses as well. Provide customers with the tools and context to recommend you.
• Giving away control means you have to teach your values. How do you ensure your values are being properly understood?
• The thing that was impressive wasn’t our millions of Facebook supporters but more importantly somewhere around 50% of our supporters did something offline. Excellent point – and connecting online activity to offline action is the million dollar question (or in this case, the billion dollar question).
• Tell a good story – narrative matters. It’s not about writing one email, rather writing an email program that crafts a relationship with someone over the course of two years. This is an important reminder that engaging people’s interests through narrative will not only form long term relationships, it will also enhance conversion rates.
• A candidate’s time is the most valuable thing on a political campaign. What is the most valuable aspect of a social media marketing campaign: what the brand responds to?
  

For an informative summary of the discussion, see Ethan Zuckerman’s blog.

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