Lessons from the Obama Campaign – Controlling the Message in the Age of Open Communications
With the inauguration of Barack Obama a day away, it is worth noting the communications strategy that helped get him to the presidency. In last month’s New York Times Magazine, there was an excellent analysis on how the Obama campaign mastered the media. I think it is very useful for communications professionals who wish to embrace both openness and message control.
I have lost count of the number of times I have heard people say you can’t control the message in the age of new media. While you can’t dictate what bloggers say about you (and it behooves you to pay attention to what they are in fact saying), you can control what you say and how you say it.
As the Times reported, “Obama’s New Way organization was grounded largely on Old School codes — notions of loyalty, aggressiveness and discretion.” If there were any disagreements, power struggles or hurt feelings you would never know it. Perhaps that is the luxury of a winning campaign. Losing campaigns tend to spout leaks.
Interestingly, Obama’s control of the message coincided with an “open” embrace of new media. In the course of the campaign, the Obama team showcased a number of new-media applications designed to project a sense of open-book communications to the public. While clearly not ignored, traditional media had to compete with new forms of communications including Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
For examples, check out slides 37-41 from Online Community Best Practices by Jeremiah Owyang at Forrester Research.
The Obama campaign made news by directly communicating with voters via email and text addresses for major announcements and taking advantage of websites like fightthesmears.com to defend against rival attacks.
And what did openness mean to the Obama campaign? According to the Times, it was about the campaign’s willingness to make the candidate, senior staff and information (from policy positions, donors lists, and birth certificates) available in a manner that “bred a feeling of real-time connectedness between campaign and voter.”
In short, they provided access to information to those with the least amount of access – the public.
For corporate communications professionals, the Obama campaign demonstrates that even the most open and transparent communications efforts can be disciplined.
As Jonathan Kopp wrote me
Obviously, a balance has to be struck. The campaign clearly respected and valued peer-to-peer conversations among voters. And they earned people’s respect and trust by providing the information and tools that helped those conversations flourish on MyBarackObama and at offline gatherings. The campaign-to-voter conversation is a different story. That’s where message discipline and consistency come in to play.
Jonathan is a partner at Shepardson Stern & Kaminsky, an integrated communications firm that was on Obama for America’s national media team and the campaign’s agency for youth.
In the age of conversations, with decentralized communications and multiple spokespersons, losing control is a palpable fear. And in fact your message will be lost or muddled without guidelines.
New media gives you new ways to reach your audience. It’s immediate. It’s personal. It’s about creating a “non traditional” corporate image. But it isn’t carte blanche for employees to say what they want. They should be fired for using abusive language or revealing proprietary information. The Obama campaign was relentless in staying on message.
Disciplined also means not wavering when embracing new forms of communications. The Obama communications team understood its value — using it imaginatively and consistently. It was not a gimmick used on an ad hoc basis. New media was integral to Obama’s message and central to a large portion of his supporters.
Perhaps in the end, one of the lasting legacies of the Obama campaign may very well be its understanding of the power and novelty of new media as well as its ability to use it as a fulcrum to drive its message.
Let me get back to you.
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