2012 Throwdown – Who’s Next?

Campaigns are conversations!

One thing that came through very clear in reading this, this, and this was that the Obama campaign reached out to every possible supporter they could.

“Our goal is to make sure that each supporter online, regardless of where they are, has a connection with Obama” – Scott Goodstein

“No shi$, Dillon!  Every campaign is supposed to do that!” Well, supposed to and doing it are a lot different.

It seems academic now: everyone’s connected, almost everyone uses the internet and web 2.0 platforms.  But it was not as clear when the run-up to the 2008 election began as it is now.  Obama was the first candidate I’d ever seen through iTunes.

It is crystal clear that social media is not a fad.  Its a way of life!  I don’t think I am alone in saying that I am ALWAYS “connected.”  Here’s a standard day:

• Wake up, check time (on iPhone); check e-mail while at it;
• Go to kitchen, make coffee, check news on computer (through Google Reader);
• Go for a run (with iPod, listening to podcast);
• Take shower
• Out the door to bus stop (listening to something, checking FB)
• Commute (chin on chest, both thumbs moving constantly)
• Arrive to school/work (on computer…connected)

You get the drift.  There is very little getting away from it.  The Obama Camp must have read Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail because they were present in every little niche, providing access to the presidential hopeful and vice versa.  Obama was no longer just talking to the American people, but through them.  He leveraged the technologies available and used the tools that were giving everyday Americans a voice.

Campaigns are conversations.

So, who’ll take the cake in 2012?  It is hard to predict.  President Obama, after crossing the “finish line”, has not stopped using the social media tools that got him to the White House.  If we incorporate the logic of Moore’s Law, by 2012, we will see new innovations in technology that are 4x more advanced than this last campaign.  For example, by 2011 it is expected that wireless companies will launch 5G Broadband networks,

Campaign experts have said President Obama could NOT have won without the Internet.  If that is true, is it possible a new unlikely candidate could find the next new thing and ride to victory?  We’ll see.