Page 162 - Free the Idea Monkey

be social—and the strategy to do it authentically. There’s a big dif-
ference between a company that behaves like a dabbler and one that
behaves like a master when it comes to social media.

Where does your company fall?

THE IDEA MONKEY FOR PRESIDENT!
Idea Monkeys can thrive anywhere—even in political organi-

zations. For example, Chris Hughes, director of online organizing,
masterfully used social media to coordinate community support and
action that ultimately led to Barack Obama’s election as the 44th
president of the United States.

Even while virtually every expert was predicting a Clinton (Hillary,
in this case) win in the Democratic primary, Obama himself embraced
social media as a lever that would change the rules of the game.

The results? More than three million Facebook friends, 200,000+
offline events, 35,000 Obama-related groups, 400,000+ blogs and nearly
15 million viewing hours on YouTube. The MyBarackObama.com
site raised more than $500 million through average donations of
under $100, while also being a strong catalyst for getting young
people to register to vote.

No stakes are higher
than those in U.S. politics,
so why didn’t any other
candidate employ social
media so effectively?

People close to Obama will tell you that the principle of “ideas
from anywhere” is central to his leadership style. This precept,
although democratic (a small “d” in this case), is not the way the
political machine in the U.S. works, and a radical idea like social
media as a campaign device was unlikely to survive the internal vot-
ing process—it took a maverick to make it happen.

Lesson: you cannot control the conversation, but you can
certainly win being part of it.

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