Convergence 2009 Conference: How to Use Social Media Like a Rock Star

Posted by Mark Magnusson Jun 12, 2009

Recently I attended Convergence 2009 hosted by CossetteWest. Convergence is a conference that brings together thought leaders in marketing to focus on emerging trends in digital media.

Some of the key digerati included Barack Obama’s Campaign Manager, Lululemon’s Community Manager, Warner Brothers' VP of Technology, and Manager of the multi-platinum band “The Killers”. All of these speakers had a very common thread when leveraging social media:

• Have a solid strategy and stick to it.
• Understand your audience.
• Share your brand story.
• Be tactically transparent.
• Engage in authentic conversation.
• Know your key brand influencers.

The keynote speaker was David Plouffe, the Campaign Manager and the "silent" force of Barack Obama’s presidential victory. During that two year journey there was a groundswell of support that reached inside communities and tapped into young voters like never before. Mr. Plouffe, a rockstar in his own right, leveraged social media to bring a bottom-up message of "change" that rocked his boss all the way to the White House. Even at one point in his speech, to make a point, he pumped up his hand with the rock-hand gesture.

Plouffe leveraged the core principles of crowdsourcing: taking tasks traditionally performed by employees, contractors, and vendors and outsourcing or relinquishing control to a larger online audience – the crowd.

Voters participated on YouTube generating videos for the campaign, like "Obama Girl" or Facebook fan pages. The Obama campaign attributes its success to the people and not to technology alone. In other words, as Plouffe said, "the people are the train, we’re just the caboose."

Technology such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr allowed the Obama campaign to have touch points for the conversations at a very grassroots level. A key ingredient is empathizing with your audience and their needs through authentic dialogue. Building trust with people requires a bottom-up approach, where influencers in every community are empowered to have a stronger voice and reach out to their constituents.

The power of reaching out to audiences at a grass roots level can especially work in fundraising efforts. As Plouffe noted, this kind of outreach encourages community participation; fundraising efforts then became successful as voters felt privileged enough to be a part of the process that they made multiple small contributions. I can see how facilitating a sense of pride in the process can lead to extraordinary results.

The Social Media phenomenon is not just limited to the "Obama factor". I like to compare it to an audience of die-hard rock fans; the outpouring of genuine thrill can’t be faked. Indeed, Plouffe said a similar thing about voters, "You can’t fabricate the enthusiasm or passion of people!"

What this comes down to is that whether you’re a musician, a politician or a business, the secret lies in people. The technology is only secondary. I think there’s a misconception that the focus of marketing efforts is to continue shouting down the marketing funnel, when in reality the most successful efforts require a much simpler approach: authenticity, transparency, listening and participation.