Social media as new game changer

MANILA, Philippines - Elections season has officially begun in the Philippines, and the thousands of candidates for the Senate, Congress and various positions in local government have already waged their campaigns at all fronts.

A new dimension – social media and other innovative ways to persuade and convince voters – has been added to the forthcoming midterm elections.

Enter Roger Fisk, the man who was widely acknowledged to have played a key behind-the-scenes role in the back-to-back electoral victories of US President Barack Obama.

Fisk’s visit to the country was part of his Asia-Pacific tour where he recently delivered talks to full-house audiences in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia. 

The First Pacific Leadership Academy (FPLA), the corporate university of the First Pacific Group of Companies and a leading provider of leadership and training solutions for the academe, government and business sector, together with the London Speakers Bureau, deemed it timely to invite Fisk as he shares valuable tools and strategies not only about social media strategies but also personal insights about Obama and his character.

“We are privileged to have Mr. Roger Fisk as he talks about battle-tested lessons on how to plan out social media to engage millions of people in long, sustained marketing and promotional strategies,” said FPLA executive director Roy Agustin K. Evalle who introduced the speaker. 

“We thank him for sharing with us a deeper view of the power of social media and how it can change the game in any event, social sector and industry,” Evalle added.

Fisk’s lecture was this year’s first in FPLA’s Executive Talks Program, a series of leadership talks which aim to inspire corporate leader-students by inviting experts who share their ideas and experiences.

Started in 2012, it has invited the likes of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, NBA champion coach Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat, and Wharton School of Business professor Thomas Donaldson to speak on various aspects of leadership.

Fisk narrated insider perspectives on how team Obama launched a brand in early 2007 that would be best described as game-changing, and how they were able to fine-tune their approaches to the political climate, voter engagement, uses of social media networks and timing which resulted in the historic back-to-back victories in 2008 and 2012.

Fisk started as senior aide to then-Senator (now Secretary of State) John Kerry, who introduced him to Obama in 2007.  “Of course at the beginning, you question what this man (Obama) can offer to us, can offer to the country.  Little by little, through conversations, I began to discover what is it about this man that made me stay,” he shared.  He described Obama as “approachable, someone not easily defeated by setbacks; encouraging.” 

Fisk said that winning the 2008 election “may have been won by luck, but I would like to think that we won it because of timing and strategy, which we later tweaked such that it assured our chances.” He described the 2008 win as “sweet,” and the 2012 as “fulfilling.”

Creating the Obama brand

Fisk conceived the idea of engaging with voters through a medium that spoke to them – the Internet and social media networks. His team started Obama’s social media campaign through the launch of his official website, www.mybarackobama.com, which he candidly referred to as “MyBO.”

“MyBO was an open platform to maximize growth of our supporters. Through the website, we taught them to self-organize – that they become the campaign themselves.  We relied on these supporters to clinch the win for us by personalizing the campaign through their own connections and relationships with their family, friends, acquaintances, co-workers. Also, it forces organizational principles to be real and meaningful,” he said.

“The key to our 2012 campaign was to start a conversation with a persuadable voter, months before the election day itself,” added Fisk.

By that, he meant being agile and more effective in responding to that voter’s priorities than if they first hear from them a few weeks before election day – to put it succinctly, the goal was to engage the voter with the Obama brand effectively and consistently.

Profiling

Fisk told the audience, that the crucial factor that gave them the two victories was the data.  In any venture, businesses need to build individual data profiles to combine their customers’ support habits, consumer data, online profile data and issue interests. 

“Use these data to determine the most effective message, deliver it with the most effective tools, and target the most receptive audiences,” he said.

 He added that timing and frequency means everything: “Be strategic about these two.  Test everything and test often,”concluded the veteran strategist, who is currently working on America Was My Office, a book that shares the stories and lessons of travelling the country across three presidential campaigns.