What we learned over breakfast with Obama’s web gurus

In this age of mass communications and the 24-hour soundbite, getting the message right and spreading it wide presents new challenges, challenges that need to be met if we are to harness the revolutionary power of the web and build on existing networks to enact change.

But when voters are independently connecting and communicating thousands of times a day on a variety of web-based platforms, discussing politics and community issues, it’s a sign that our democracy has not only opened up, but matured, and it presents a huge opportunity.

That’s why, just before Christmas, LabourList held a meeting with Blue State Digital, the team who created and developed the Obama campaign’s web tools and strategy.

This was the team that made the Obama campaign the best funded in American history. It was also the team that, for the first time, harnessed existing social networking groups on the web to create an online movement.

Of course, a web strategy is only as good as the grassroots activism it supports, and as Alex Smith writes in his recent article in Progress, Labour can do a lot more to connect those dots.

But the lessons of the Obama campaign’s web team remain critical. Here is a loose transcript of our meeting:

– The heart of the online campaign is about the structure and relationships that you have with your supporters, not just party members.

– A new media team does not require technical know-how or mass advertising. It requires writers, designers and production people that allow bargaining between other parts of the campaign and allows you to push cultural boundaries.

– Specialists in particular fields can limit creative ideas. You need a mulit-disciplined team for multi-platform activity.

– Try to encourage all of sectors of the movement to engage with new media and each bring their own skills.

– Quality of content is key.

– Advertising local campaign events online makes them national, and even global, events. It also prepares a base of supporters in time for an election.

– Get new blood in.

– Growth is important and openness is key.

– Do not roll out all the technology you can. Keep the campaign local, build relations and roll out small, achievable events.

– Email is the backbone of all modern communication.

– Ask people to do tangible things.

– Allow for peer moderation to assist the development of an online community.

– Cover all the bases: MySpace, Webcasts, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

– Segmentation and localisation provides authenticity.

– Make your website a space for personal storytelling.

Hopefully, over time, the Labour party and the wider movement will be able to introduce the relevant parts of this approach.