by Brian Solis
Credit: Barack Obama on Flickr.
My latest post is live on TechCrunch, “Is Obama Ready To Be a Two-Way President?” It examines the transformation of people from mere voters into “customers” in order to create a true two-way era of politics, cut through party lines, and increase approval ratings across all offices. The New Web creates the foundation for people to participate in a crowd-sourced governance.
Highlights
Where there’s victory, there’s also opportunity…
Over 46% of American voters and 22 states sided with John McCain. Either way you look at it, it’s still a significant portion of America who didn’t believe #change or #hope were attributes of the Obama campaign. These voters believed their future lay with another candidate.
Politics aside, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or member of the Green Party, we cannot overlook the power of real-world community relations combined with the reach and engagement of online social communities and networks.
Online tools such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter contributed to the netting of record-breaking campaign funding and the staggering galvanization of a younger generation of first-time voters who truly made an impact and a difference.
My question is, what if these same social media tools were deployed to not only communicate “to” constituents, but also to listen and interact with supporters as well as those who don’t currently endorse the President-elect?
I argue that if Obama dedicates a team aside from the outbound crew that “pushed” content through social channels in order to strategically reach, listen to, and embrace the 46% that voted against him, he might be able to run a truly democratic term and head into the next election with a record-breaking approval rating – curtailing the necessity to campaign while in office in order to focus on the issues we elected him to fix – while also cultivating the country for greater future prosperity.
Winning over conservatively estimating 5% of voters who were on the fence but ultimately voted for McCain accounts for almost three million votes.
This isn’t just about broadcasting content through new channels or merely soliciting feedback; it’s the ability to identify and internalize themes to precipitate change and earn support through action – not just words.
It’s the art and science of stripping down the politics to reveal truth. This is a political ecology rooted in sociology and conversations. People shouldn’t only have a voice during election time; listening and responding should be an ongoing practice and process of any office.
For a deeper review of the subject, please read the unedited version at PR 2.0 (includes links to downloadable printable PDF and Word formats).
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About the Author:
Brian Solis
Brian Solis is principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm. Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has studied and influenced the effects of emerging media on business, marketing, publishing, and culture. His current book, Engage, is regarded as the industry reference guide for businesses to build and measure success in the social web.
