Two of the most high profile personalities in public life, President Obama and Lance Armstrong have both shown the world how to tap the power of the internet and new technologies in an amazingly dynamic way.
John McCain and Barack Obama both campaigned using advertising on YouTube in 2008. Seven of the sixteen major presidential contenders kicked off their campaigns online. Personal Democracy Forum, a website and annual conference that explores the relationship between politics and technology, concludes that the internet will change democracy itself.
Using social-networking tools, another would be Presidential candidate generated a “money bomb”- $6m in one day, shattering previous records. These informal fundraising networks meant that Paul and Huckabee stayed in the Presidential race a lot longer than they might otherwise have done. But it was Barack Obama who has achieved the paradigm shift, raising more money from the grassroots than any campaign ever. In June 2008 alone a staggering $52m was raised of which $31m were donations of $200 or less.
Mr Obama has over 1m supporters on Facebook, used Twitter and is most famous for refusing to give up his Blackberry when it became a security risk once he was elected President. Obama’s team has proven that not only do they understand the DNA of the internet but that the new media and power of Web 2.0 can make what was deemed impossible now seem achievable. It’s fair to say the election of Obama embodied many ground breaking “firsts” not least of which he is literally the first internet President.
Much of Obama’s support comes from members of Generation Y, the group of young people born roughly between 1978 and 1996. According to the New Politics Institute, the number of eligible Generation Y voters in the US will be close to 50m this year and about a third of all voters by 2016. About 90% of them are online, compared to 75% of all adults. Two-thirds of internet users under the age of 30 have a social-networking profile, and half of these use the sites to get information about politics or the campaigns.
When Lance Armstrong sat down with John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit, he had been twittering for about 10 days. Now @lancearmstrong has taken the internet world by storm and he is one of the 10 most followed twitterer’s in the world with 1.4m followers. For those not acquainted with Twitter, Lance Armstrong explains:
“140 characters fit’s my personality well. I’m not much for small talk so 140 get’s me that. I see long drawn out emails and I delete them. It also brings a certain transparency to my life that others may have never seen or realized. Lastly, it works great for talking about the thing I care about the most (behind my family) and that’s fighting cancer. Twitter builds grassroots movements quicker than anything I’ve ever seen. I try to keep it positive….It has to be 100% authentic. I think people are smart. They know when they see something real. I talk about what’s happening now and it’s always the real scoop.”
It’s the Web 2.0 Armstrong brand-building phenomena which is taking place before our eyes at Le Tour de France which demonstrates the power of this new media. Armstrong’s amazing cancer research campaign “livestrong” has literally ballooned into a global movement on the back of his sporting achievements and his personal cancer story. Although the Tour is yet to conclude, Armstrong is in a podium position, which some say is an incredible demonstration of his talent as one of the oldest riders in the hardest endurance test in sport.
But that’s not the real story, incredible as it is. What Lance has done is to use the platform of a global sporting event to launch online, his new team for 2010, achieve previously unheard of coverage for their new sponsors and keep his cancer foundation “livestrong” in growth mode. His personal brand has enormous power now and he is listed in June’s Pro Cycling Power List as the most influential person in world cycling - ahead of any other cycling star and all of the sport’s administrators.
All this, from his bedroom in a two star hotel in central France dressed in shorts, compression socks and a hoodie. And true to form, the “twitter video” is shot by a handheld camera and doesn’t last longer than 80 seconds. 160,000 viewers had downloaded it within 24 hours.
Take note. History is being made here. And if you hold a leadership position in business, beware being trapped into saying you don’t “get” social networking.
http://www.livestrong.com/lance-armstrong/video/radioshack-and-lance-to-form-new-cycling-team-in-2010/5687253c-7dc3-45d2-aae5-9d028d738b21/
July 24, 2009 10:26 AM | Permalink
