Then there comes a thin line between political and government PR activities. Thin line because not only is this difference subtle but this also varies from one country to the other. The same is true for the media. Much as it is not a secret that the press in UK is partisan, the same would be called unprofessional in other countries. However, when it comes to PR activities, four main activities stand out namely:
· Media management (controlling messages)
· Image management (protecting an identity or brand, relationship building etc)
· Internal communication (engaging people within say the party and controlling opinionated messages)
· Information management (gate-keeping)
It is the second and third activities that I will zero in on while looking at none other than the Barak Obama campaign that led to his triumphal entry to the White House in 2008.
Lessons from the Obama campaign
It can hardly be argued that this was one of the most successful political campaigns in history.
It gave the term political campaign a new meaning, especially with its use of online media. This was a campaign which the Obama brand established its existence from the onset.
The Obama brand was at virtually every social media tool you can name, especially if that tool existed before 2008. This was a campaign which realised how best to reach out to the floating and “up-for-grabs-voters”. And it got hold of them. Importantly, this was a campaign which used the internet in timely ways to recruit, engage, mobilise, record data and deliver the tools to use the data.
However, the ultimate goal was about mobilising people face-to-face not online. The Internet only helped reach out to potential and existing supporters. On this point, I should hasten to concur with one Duane Raymond by stating that it was not the use of the Internet that helped make the campaign successful. Rather, it was the building and mobilisation of a network. The argument behind this is that if you think it was the Internet that made a big difference, then you could use the Internet without ever using networking.
The practitioners behind the campaign realised that the real power is in the network of people and the Internet can help networking by helping to connect to people; connect people with each other and allow people to connect with the campaign. They realised the importance of using campaigning as networking then planned to use the right tool for the right task and made Internet part of that. Eventually as Duane also argued, it was because of the Obama Campaign's networking that they were able to raise 650 million USD and it was because of the networking that they didn't have to spend it on hiring 'local canvassers' as the McCain campaign did, but could instead spend it on offices, ads, staff, etc.
Can countries like the UK practice the same?
Paying attention to networking is certainly unparalleled. Networking is the real deal because it is about not only establishing a relationship with supporters, but also about sustaining it, developing it; extending it and helping supporters do the same. This is typically what happened with the Obama campaign, especially with its use of social media to enhance networking. In the UK, the three live debates that attracted massive 10million viewers will always stand out but the main campaign last year when David Cameron was voted as Prime minister did not engage the social media as did the Obama campaign. Still, some traits in the Obama campaign can still be traced in the UK, especially when it comes to protecting a brand (as shown in the picture).
However, it is the use of the media as political influencers that makes it different from other countries. All in all, this does not erode the fact that networking is the real deal.
The following tips from the Obama campaign further establish our case:
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