Barrack Obama and social media

If one is still wondering on how effective social media can be, they only need look at the social media efforts of the Obama campaign.  Reports of US$639 million raised from over 3 million donors the vast majority of them online – social media had a undeniable impact on this.  I’m fortunate to be speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon this afternoon and I intend on mentioning this fact during my speech.  In the meantime, here’s an interesting Business Week article today about Obama’s efforts regarding social media and how future campaigns will never be the same…

I was invited to attend a CIPS dinner last night, the event was sponsored by Bell Canada as part of the ICE Conference and directed towards top CIO’s and business people.  I’m writing an article on social media and large organizations for the Edmontonians magazine and thought this would be a good place to get a quote or two.  Interestingly, I was able to speak with a number of Bell exec’s from several different departments and the answer was the same.  “No we’re not using social media externally.”  There’s a definite wait and see attitude throughout their culture on this issue.  I’m wondering if the Bell brain trust has been paying attention to the US presidential election lately or at all?

During that same dinner, I was also able to speak to a couple of people who work for the Alberta Government.  It seems as though they too are grappling with the use of social media among their ranks.  As one AB Gov director said, “the upper management doesn’t think it’s being used but among the younger employees it definitely is…”  There are reports of a planning across all ministries but it’s slow moving.  Out of that discussion, I’ve been invited to present to one of the key government departments on social media.  This may also have been due to the fact that we’re already working in this space to some extent.

Regardless, there is no denying that Barrack Obama broke the mold in many ways during this election, the world has changed forever (for the better I think and hope) and in my opinion so has the discussion regarding social media ROI.