Studio – Video Lessons…

This post is in response to Video Lessons: How the Barack Obama Won Using Digital and Social Media.

Now, to me personally this video mentioned nothing new to me. I guess that I expected something more. Not sure what, but something. The information presented was nothing new to me.

I view this video as something for someone who is new to the process of full functioning integration of digital media and social networking. I guess that something could come out of it for me, but I have watched it three times now and still feel the same way about it. Like I said, none of this is a new concept. In fact a concept such as this has been for a long time. It just took one person who happened to be important in the public eye to make it popular apparently.

The overall implementation of this video really is not much different than my previous post about the Business Impacts of Social Networking, except that we are seeing a more direct outcome or the effects of using social networking and digital media.

At the very beginning of the video, he explains that these are “Business Lessons that we’ve learned from Barack Obama’s campaign” and rightly so, it most certainly was “the most effective marketing campaign to integrate the use of the internet in its’ execution.”

The key thing that stood out to me that was mentioned, was the key point made…”Having people who understand who live and breathe digital social media leading these projects.” and that “Not everyone in the organization is going to get it.” In other words, it will take a team of those who already know what they are doing and have  a better understanding of how to implement the tools available to them. Though, is that not the way it should be for everything. I mean, there is a reason why people “specialize” in certain parts of their field and that is because no one person can do it all. President Obama, knew this and was just smart enough to have a good team to carry out his ideas.

The other idea that it is not about “you” or “me” but it is about everyone else,  “them” & “we”… again, nothing new. It has really always been about the consumer in anytime of success. They make you who you are or become when you are looking to exceed in popularity or in business. The thing is just getting those people (the consumer) to listen to what you have to say. That’s where we saw this campaign use the social networking and digital media to their advantage. The fact that it was a very important topic to the general public helped a lot too.

I am not bashing the video. In fact,  I think it is great actually, but more in laymen terms to explain to those who do not know how the campaign or more specifically how social networking and media work. However, I do have to say…of course it worked!

We are, without a doubt, in a new age of social networking and in a rapid growth of digital media. This kind of stuff has been building for the last few years at a rapid rate. We just happen to witness a public figure that was a Presidential Candidate who was, for the first time in all Presidential elections, a tech-junkie for the most part. Obama is the first President who has ever been allowed to carry his own cellular phone and personal computer. Why? Because he understands the technology better then the previous and knows how to use it. Plus he was smart enough to delegate the things that he did not know to those who did. That is what made him successful…the fact that he was unique in everything that he did. He is “New School” as some would put it.

I think that it is safe to say that, yes as the video states, this campaign will probably be studied for the next four to five years as a way to learn about the implementation of new applications for the business world, but more as a example to base their already progressive developments on. A way to make tweaks to existing ideas. I am curious to see how the business world will expand in the social networking and digital media world. We are seeing changes now.