What did Obama for America do so right?

The Obama for America campaign was the first to successfully harness the power of social networking, but what did it actually achieve?

A new report written by Sarah DiJulio, and Andrea Wood of M&R Strategic Services points out that although five million friends were gathered on various social networks, they offered little in terms of funds raised or volunteers recruited.

Likewise the My.BarackObama.com toolset allowed supporters to self-organise into affinity groups, raise money from friends and make phone calls from home, but it generated only a tiny fraction of the total funds raised, volunteers recruited and GOTV calls made on behalf of the campaign.

However, the authors say that the most successful new media strategies for the campaign were all things that can be replicated by not-for-profit organisations. These include building an email list; sending high-quality, engaging emails to those on the list; make them a part of the story; run a programme that is data-driven and use analytics to improve that programme.

Seven factors made the campaign really successful: Discipline; the right people; spotlight on supporters; nimbleness; authenticity; content matters; and data-driven culture.

To download the report click here.