I was registered on Obama’s site for more than a year leading up to the elections. I was impressed with how his campaign managed his web presence across various channels. I was also registered at johnmccain.com and hillaryclinton.com so I could follow all the lead characters in the race closely.
Thinking back, as an audience, there were two things that Obama’s campaign did much better than the other campaigns. First, the consistency in which they kept in touch with their audience. As audience, there’s something comforting about knowing how often and familiarity with the tone of communication you receive from an organization. The consistency creates a rhythm for the organization, but more importantly it creates a rhythm for the audience as well. There were no periods of lull or sudden frenzy that was apparent in the other campaigns. Second, the complete orchestration of the content of the email campaigns, website, and content distributed through social media outlets. If you click through or visit the website following an email communication, the media elements on barackobama.com kept you focused on that specific message. With other campaigns, it was very clear that different arms of the campaign were working different channels and I was left with more questions than answers with the two minutes I was ready to spend with them.
Now there’s a new whitehouse.gov website that promises to extend what I experienced with barackobama.com. You can sign up here like I did.
Will the ingenuity of barackobama.com translate to whitehouse.gov? Will change really come to Washington? Based on what I saw on barackobama.com, there’s much to be hopeful!
