Obama Gets LinkedIn
Posted: June 25th, 2008 | Author: miconian | Filed under: Media And Advertising | Tags: linkedin, obama | Comments
Barack Obama is using LinkedIn’s public question/answer feature to ask LinkedIn users what they think America must do to stay competitive.
I doubt Obama is going to read all 3,000 (and counting) answers, but that doesn’t matter. The real subtext here is that:
a) He’s giving people a public forum in which to give him advice, and
b) He’s demonstrating that he knows how to use LinkedIn.
It’s also damn smart marketing, because asking a question on LinkedIn is free for members. He’s paying for the question to be “featured” and for some co-branded banners that draw attention to it. But that’s really not very expensive, given what’s going to come out of this.
Obama’s LinkedIn question, and all the answers to it, are going to just stay there, on LinkedIn, forever. People are going to read the thread, quote it, and respond to it elsewhere. It helps LinkedIn, it helps Obama, and if he becomes President, it may become an oft-referenced, or at least oft-reviewed, thread, in which case it will also be good publicity for everyone who participates in it.
Smart, cost-effective advertising, now matter what your politics are.
Right?
It is damn smart, and also positions him as an accessible man of the people. If he goes the distance, it will be VERY interesting to see if social media tools change how the public communicates with the White House.