Tag Archives: Obama

July 8, 2008 · 6:57 am

It’s the Business, Stupid

Great line at the end of yesterday’s piece on Obama’s online operation. Chris Hughes, who runs the operation and is a former Facebook guy said the following:

“You can have the best technology in the world,” he said, “but if you don’t have a community who wants to use it and who are excited about it, then it has no purpose.”

This is of interest to me on two counts:

  1. Isn’t it interesting that the business he helped found actually had the community before it had the technology.  In fact, one could argue that the best tech pieces on Facebook are being done by the folks who plug in to their platform and not by the platform itself.
  2. RUN from anyone who walks in to a meeting and says “let’s use/do this because it’s cool”.  You know what’s cool?  Building sustainable businesses.  If the technology helps you get there, I’m in.  If it’s something that costs money, doesn’t generate revenue or revenues in excess of what it costs to do without any measurable ancillary benefits, count me out.

I think this is the point that Mr. Hughes was trying to make.  Use technology as a tool, not as a business.  It’s what makes the business happen.

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June 12, 2008 · 5:44 pm

Why it’s different this time

This is not a political post. That said, this piece on the Obama campaign’s use of digital media channels to disintermediate demonstrates how things have changed, even in the four years since our last exercise in freedom:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has launched a Web site to dispel rumors about his faith and patriotism and his wife’s views on race that have dogged his candidacy for more than a year.

This is what any good business should be doing now, along with, of course, using some of the more traditional channels to dispel untruths. The classic example is the rumors surrounding a series of poisonings and how it affected the product. While the response to the Tylenol problem of the early 80’s required J&J to work through print and television, both paid and unpaid, to get their message out, they also took tangible action beyond PR as they recalled $100m worth of product. Today, while tangible action is always key, when there is nothing to be done except present facts, that action must be done through every means available.

Regardless of your political affiliation, the use in this campaign of everything from Twitter to SEO and how it has made a difference is great to watch. I’m excited to see which side does a better job. Our election cycle is a very public example of short-term brand-building and it is a zero-sum game, unlike non-political branding. It has a protracted window – sort of the ultimate brand-building reality show. I, for one, am paying attention to the lessons we can take away.

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