Obama’s strategy: use the Internet to tap the grass roots

Hearty congratulations to Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States. The big difference between Obama and first Senator Clinton his Democratic rival and then Senator McCain his Republican rival lay in his power to motivate grass roots support and then harness it using the internet. Whilst his competitors relied on paid workers for many tasks, Obama used volunteers sourced from the internet. Half of all the money he raised (a staggering $650m) came from small donations of less than $200.

Bloomberg’s Jonathan D. Salant has a good piece about this:

“Obama, 47, went after the small donors early and returned to them often. He took in $8 million online in the first quarter of 2007, quadruple the campaign’s goal of $2 million, [Obama strategist] Axelrod said. At a February 2007 rally in Las Vegas, Obama volunteers fanned through the crowd, gathering the names and e- mail addresses of people who could be asked for small donations again and again.

“Almost half of Obama’s money came from people giving $200 or less, compared with 34 percent for Arizona Senator McCain, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington- based research group. In 2004, 31 percent of Massachusetts Senator Kerry’s money and 32 percent of Bush’s funds came from donors who gave $200 or less.”

Obama’s success in raising small donations made it possible for him to eschew Federal funding, which came with its own limits. This meant he could outspend McCain and he did so handsomely. Salantz again:

“With his extra money, Obama almost tripled McCain’s advertising expenditures as Election Day drew near. He spent $21.5 million to McCain’s $7.5 million from Oct. 21-28, according to a University of Wisconsin study. During the last weekend of the campaign, Obama ran 5,947 ads in seven competitive states compared with 3,358 for McCain, 77 percent more, according to the Nielsen Co. On Nov. 3, Obama ran 3,410 ads in those states; McCain ran 1,900.

“Even before the final ad blitz, Obama had spent $190.2 million on media, compared with $76.7 million by McCain. The money allowed him to both fend off McCain’s attacks and go on the offensive. In addition, he was able to expand his campaign to states traditionally inhospitable to Democratic presidential candidates, such as Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana.”

It didn’t stop with money. On election day campaign volunteers who wanted to help get out the vote could go online, log in and to pick up the phone numbers of fellow Americans to urge them to go the polls. How much more effective this was than the alternative “robo dialler” methods (where the potential supporter is contacted by an automated phone call) can be seen from the results. Obama’s success derived in part from empowering grass roots support using new technology to allow participation.

Whereas in previous campaigns gurus like Karl Rove had used a sophisticated understanding of social networks to target key communities with messaging in relation to key voting issues (gay marriage, abortion), Obama used the Internet to galvanise key communities into active practical and financial support for his campaign.

There are lessons here for anyone who wants to understand to communicate and to connect in the new economy. …