Community

“I Have 2,765,814 Facebook Fans. What Do I Do Now?”

Much has been discussed about how Obama harnessed the social power of the internet to help him achieve victory in the Presidential campaign. Now, he’s in the fortunate position of having earned arguably the largest, most engaged, and most powerful social network of any person or brand in history.

• 2,765,814 Facebook Fans, and hundreds of other niche pages and groups
• 121,620 Twitter Followers
• 869,903 MySpace Friends
• 129,906 Youtube Subscribers
• 7,142 Flickr Contacts

And his own social network of organizers and activists on my.barackobama.com has over 1.5 million active members.

This engagement contributed to Obama’s win. With 64,975,682 votes cast (more than any other candidate ever), he earned the most youth votes in recent memory, approximately 21.6 million-23.9 million; and the highest percentage of youth participation since the voting age was changed to 18 in 1972. Obama also won the highest portion of youth voters ever, 66% to 32%.

These numbers add up to millions of individuals who care about what Obama does, and have already taken deliberate action to help him accomplish his goals. They have chosen to listen to what he has to say, and more importantly they have told him through comments, message board posts, group emails, photos, and response videos, what matters to them.

Now Obama is faced with a similar challenge and opportunity as many brands and corporations who have recently made successful forays into the social web. Now that my campaign is over, and we built this network of fans, what do we do next?

Stay active, stay engaged, and stay human
All of these connections you have made are with real people. You have built up a community of trust and reciprocal relationships. These individuals are still visiting Youtube and Facebook everyday. They’re still Twittering every day. They’re still interested in what you have to say. Be clear with them about what comes next. Tell them about your next goals, and invite them to help you create them.

Listen, listen, listen
The best thing that the social web has to offer is the opportunity to listen to the people who share your interests. Obama and the brands who are in similar positions should be actively listening to their fans to stay in touch on an hourly basis with the things that are important to them. Use search tools to monitor buzz and identify emerging issues.

Give them something to do
Social networks work best when the members feel like they have something to do. When your big campaign is finished, give your fans something smaller to work towards, or a smaller experience to participate in until your next big thing comes along. These smaller goals don’t have to be outward facing (in fact sometimes it’s better if they’re not). Inspire conversation among the community. Ask them to talk about what they think you should do next. Ask them to introduce each other to compelling content and experiences outside your network. Ask them to give you advice about how to be a more effective community leader.

Obama has already started to indicate how he plans to continue this movement online. On Thursday, his transition team launched the beautifully designed change.gov. On this official site, visitors are invited to share their stories about the campaign, their hopes for this incoming administration, and to apply for jobs. Also, Chris Hughes, the young creator of Obama’s social network my.barackobama.com, encouraged members to stay tuned for the next chapter: “The site isn’t going anywhere. The online tools in My.BarackObama will live on. Barack Obama supporters will continue to use the tools to collaborate and interact.”

Related posts:

1. Friending on Facebook
2. Congress 2.0

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