To use or not to use: Political campaigns and online media

One of the most innovative, memorable and most of all successful political campaigns the world has seen so far was during the United States presidential election in 2008. The winner, current president Barack Obama, made his way into the White House not only because he had a strong team behind him but most of all because his team – for the first time in the history of such elections – based a large part of their tactics on the use of online media.

The way Obama’s campaign was played out was until that time unique and revolutionary and not only gained massive attention from the US citizens but also from around the world. With this new and fresh way of doing a political campaign, Obama not only aquired the status of a potential president candidate but it seemed that within seconds he became a global politcal superstar.

The Obama team indeed kept to the usual strategies used in potlical campaigns but besides that they also gave power to the people by targeting them online on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or YouTube. Obama had his profile that people could access anytime, get updates from, comment and post information and most of all had the opportunity to engage in this election themselves by spreading messages. The Obama team communicated with the citizens on a constant level and gave them the feeling of being directly involved in the decision and process of the future president.

Many sceptics might have expected this tactic of using online media to fail as they thought that it might be a mistake to involve the public that much into the process of the elections. Obama and his team however were able to prove all the critics wrong by giving control to the people, gaining worldwide support.

On 2 February a viral video was published online, showing various celebrities singing or speaking parts of a speech that Obama held on January 8, 2008, following the New Hampshire presidential primary elections. Obama’s team was not involved in the production of this video but published it on the official website just one day after its release, noticing how successful it was. Within a week the video reached over four million views on YouTube, gaining Obama huge media coverage – national and international, being distributed by his supporters. This again shows the power and opportunities online media offer to the people.



UK’s current Prime Minister David Cameron and his team were very well aware of the successful strategies used during the Obama campaign and decided to take a similar road. He and his team targeted their audience a lot through social media and making similar appearances as Obama during his campaign. Sometimes it seemed however that Cameron did not present something new but rather emulated the US president. With this he became a mock for the media and the opposition Labour Party. Although Cameron was not able to tie in with Obama’s success, he did win the elections in the end.

Online media offer a perfect opportunity to reach a large audience and engage with the people directly. However this has to be planned well and political communicators need to be aware that when concentrating on the internet this also means to let go or give up a part of their control.

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Crisis Management

There is a time when every company or organisation may find itself in an uncomfortable situation facing a more or less dramatic crisis. With such an easy accessible tool like the internet it is getting more and more difficult to prepare in cases of a crisis. Anyone with a camera (mobile, camcorder, or digital camera) can make “undercover” films and post them on platforms like YouTube, Facebook and similar ones. Confidential or damaging material can therefore easily be distributed causing a great harm in a company’s reputation.

In such cases, crisis management is needed more than anything. New trust needs to be established among the public and the responsible parties need to be able to respond to the high pressure they will then be under. However a crisis is always an opportunity to show how well structured and prepared a company is in such situations. When videos of employees working at Domino’s Pizza were leaked on the internet showing disgusting actions they did while preparing the food, the company faced the problem immediately and dealt with it in an excellent way (Case study below).

Today companies, organisations and governments need to be prepared for a crisis any time. The need to have prepared strategies, already planned out before a crisis’ outbreak – and most importantly they need to be prepared any time as the internet never sleeps! That means they need to analyse potential risks and crisis situations and causes beforehand. Most importantly they should prepare and have and eye on their employees as these people are the greatest risk. They are the closest to confidential information and have access to all or almost all areas in a company. Furthermore great attention should be paid to the Internet and how to use it and several social media platforms in cases of a crisis. With the Internet the largest number of people can be reached and updates can be posted every hour or even every few minutes.
     
Here are my the Top 8 Crisis Management Tips:

1. Face the crisis!

2. Have clear roles on who is doing what in a crisis
    (who speaks to the media, who is responsible for communication on the internet)!

3. Identify the four W’s (who what when where) before facing the media!

4. Prepare and rehearse your crisis management plans!

5. Don’t hide – be accessible for the media and the public
    (on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TV etc.)!

6. Train your employees!

7. Have guidelines for the employees how to use social media
    (they should know how to make regular updates giving a positive image)!

8. Get third parties involved that have a positive influence and
    support on your image among the public!