The 2008 U.s. presidential race will be historic for many reasons. In addition to issues around race, age and gender, the presidential nominees are on the frontier when it comes to a new level of social networking, whether it's using Facebook to get supporters to feel personally and publicly invested in a candidate, or viral video to counteract an opponent's claim.
To determine what applications the grass-roots technological tactics can have for the corporate world, David Smith and Rob Underwood of Deloitte Consulting authored "New Media and the 2008 Campaign Season—Valuable Lessons for Business About Being First, Fast and Nimble."
"Our hypothesis is not that presidential campaigns are always ahead in technology, but by their nature and philosophy, they are interesting crucibles," says Underwood, a senior manager in Deloitte's Customer and Market Strategy Group.
Hillary Clinton's, Barack Obama's and John McCain's viral videos
and presence on Web sites like MySpace and Facebook, Underwood says, can show companies how they can reach out to Gen Y-ers and Millennials. So companies that don't think a social networking site could boost their reputation—or bottom line—should think again, Underwood says, even if the company lies outside the technology scope.
However, social networking can be a double-edged sword, as the presidential candidates also can attest to. Users concealing their identities—or worse, posing as someone else—can do damage to a candidate's reputation. Underwood also maintains that smaller companies have a lot more to lose when it comes to dealing with an angry "squeaky wheel."
"In a twenty billion dollar company, some bad press may be more readily recoverable," Underwood says. However, a sole proprietor can lose a lot of business because of just one dissatisfied patron.
The other risk, of course, is a company's own employees, who may be disgruntled and can veer sharply from a company's message when expressing their views online.
One of the key mistakes companies make, Underwood says, is in not responding to a crisis—real or virtual—right away. "You must respond to threats. Waiting is never an option. Not responding doesn't work. That's been a pretty clear lesson from the [presidential] campaign," Underwood says. The danger in waiting is the risk that customers will lose their loyalty and trust in a brand, which can be impossible to win back. The Deloitte paper cites John Kerry's delayed response to the "Swift Boat" attack as an example of the result
of not immediately responding to a credibility crisis on the presidential- campaign level.
However, Un-derwood has some suggestions for im- proving the state of virtual affairs. Rating systems can vouch for a user's credibility, and Underwood points to a site like LinkedIn, where users can do just that, as an example. "That's a good first attempt at starting to introduce impartiality," Underwood says.
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