Image source: Twitter

Whatever your political preferences, you’d have to agree that Barack Obama and his team know how to promote their public relations message through digital marketing. They carefully craft the message to be shareable across social media and to especially resonate with young people, his most enthusiastic supporters. That effort and skill repeatedly produce posts that spread virally across the internet.

PR and marketing practitioners can learn some lessons from the Obama team. CEOs and their communications personnel must no longer be content with conventional strategies such as press releases and internal newsletters and can benefit by adopting some of Obama’s PR practices.

Digital marketing and public relations commentators cite these examples.

Humanize the chief. Obama’s team posts candid, funny and endearing photographs of Obama to humanize the president. The image of Obama hugging his wife, posted after the 2008 election, enjoyed an enormous amount of sharing on Twitter.  

He digitally opened his office to the public by producing the West Wing Week — a weekly episode that informs the audience about what is happening in the White House and in the Obama family life. While CEOs don’t need to open their lives to the world, a few videos that showcase their personality, use humor and reveal personal interests can increase trust and help people relate to them, advises Vitaly Shter, director of product marketing at Vimeo, in a Tech Crunch article.

Encourage social sharing. Obama’s team released a series of illustrated accolades in a post named “Share with a Friend the Accomplishment that Means Most to You” during the 2012 campaign. Through eye-catching graphics, this simple campaign encouraged huge amounts of social media sharing by encouraging supporters to spread the message, notes Zach Kitschke, head of communications at Canva, in a Huffington Post article.

Image source: Maria Celina

Tailor content to channels. By tailoring content to the various platforms and their audiences, Obama’s team posts content that feels genuine and engaging. For instance, they created a blog for Tumblr, a teen-oriented blogging site. Understanding the site’s youthful audience, they seek a colloquial and personality-driven appeal with simple “handcrafted” visuals, Kitschke notes

Engage in discussions. More than any other president, Obama has embraced digital marketing. Rather than simply posting content, he engages voters in two-way discussions. And the engagement extends beyond the mainstream networks of Facebook and Twitter. During his 2012 presidential campaign, Obama answered questions on a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session. The President’s answers were a mix of policy issues and humanizing remarks. For instance, he promised to release the White House’s beer recipe.

Leverage influencers. PR pros in the White House appreciate influencer marketing. In one example, Obama invited some of the most popular YouTube stars to a White House summit to promote the Affordable Care Act and healthcare.gov. He and his PR team evidently understood that the YouTube stars hold more sway among young people than authority figures. The White House released a video promoting the meeting, and some of the YouTube stars released their own videos supporting Obamacare.

Bottom Line: Obama and his PR and marketing team skillfully promote the president’s agenda and build goodwill through digital channels. Marketing experts say brands and organizations can invigorate their PR and marketing by following many of Obama’s successful digital marketing strategies.

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William Comcowich

William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.