Rahaf Harfoush heard Will.I.Am’s call Yes We Can and decided to join the Obama campaign at Chicago HQ. Now Rahaf is no ordinary door-knocker. She is a Gen-Y social media maven, consultant and frequent collaborator with Don Tapscott, including on Wikinomics and Grown Up Digital. So now that everybody and their brother is looking to the groundbreaking Obama campaign for insight, Rahaf is a close-to-the-frontlines voice you need to pay attention to.
Her excellent presentation is online at her blog. Video is online at the Rotman site, including an intro by Alexander Manu, formerly of the Beal Institute and currently professor of Business Design at Rotman. I’m embedding the slides here:
Great story and insights. Most important insight for me was that the social media tools worked because the underlying strategy and philosophy of the campaign was itself new, different and consistent with those tools:
- The 50-state strategy
- Targeting the “disaffected center”
- Small donor focus
Social media isn’t a set of tactics, it is an orientation and philosophy and needs to integrate a focused brand and clear compelling message together with an inclusive and adaptable approach as well as an organization that is culturally ready to live those principles.
Strategy, message, culture. As powerful as these technologies are, it is the subtleties of their use and the human behaviours they enable that is the key to unlocking their value.
[...] Rahaf’s presentation below certainly helps to break down the elements of how the Obama campaign effectively utilized social media to engage people on the issues that matter to them. My friend Mark Kuznicki has some great commentary on this presentation and how it relates to social media here. [...]
[...] Young People in Politics Posted by renjie On July – 15 – 2009 A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center between October 2007 and March 2008 found that 58% of voters under the age of 30 identified or leaned more towards the Democratic Party, compared with only 33% who identified with the GOP. It seems that the Democratic Party’s current lead in identification among young voters has more than doubled since the 2004 campaign, from 11 points to 25 points. This is significant considering the vast number of young people supporting the Obama campaign last year, whether it was volunteering for the Obama campaign through small-donor fundraising (made simple with the effective use of my.barackobama.com and other social media tools) or helping to get the vote out on Election Day itself. One such person who decided to get involved was Rahaf Harfoush, who upon hearing Will.I.Am’s Yes We Can video, decided to join the Obama campaign at the Chicago HQ, and then went on to write the book Yes We Did: An Inside Look at How Social Media Built the Obama Brand detailing her experience with the Obama Campaign. Rahaf’s presentation below certainly helps to break down the elements of how the Obama campaign effectively utilized social media to engage people on the issues that matter to them. My friend Mark Kuznicki has some great commentary on this presentation and how it relates to social media here. [...]