If you want be a true heavy hitter and get a head start in selling your message, you do to your voters (or customers) what Facebook did to college kids -you unite them, give them a voice, let them find the other enthusiasts and let them feel they’re part of something special, while at the same time you pay a close attention to what they are saying about you or your product.
All this translates into building your own social network. This is ideal if you have a following anything like Apple’s (just look at the iPhone mayhem!). But since most politicians or companies don’t have such a hard core evangelists to turn to, you need to carefully choose your social object. The social object you choose will be the very thing that the whole existence of your social network is build on.
DIY Social Networks
There are at least three DIY Social Network services out there worth mentioning that I know of, namely Ning, People Aggregator, and Vibe Capital. [review here]
Out of the three I have heard the best feedback of Ning, which is also, no coincidentally, the one which I am most familiar with. Ning is founded by the Netscape legend Marc Andreessen. Notable for all the politicians, who are more comfortable writing speeches than writing code, is Andreessen’s bold claim that "[You can] create your own social network for anything — in about two minutes, for free." [About Ning in Marc's blog here]
Social Objects
Sami Viitamäki has written a good introductory post on social objects as part of the FLIRT model that he developed [here]. Sami has outlined the social object-concept and the many issues that relate to it, with further links to more thorough analysis of the concept and its use.
If you are a company selling products, you are better off choosing a specific product line or a single product as your social object, that is someway special and can be distinguished from your competitor’s offering, rather than building on the umbrella brand which encompasses your entire product portfolio. Even though your brand is likely to represent products that your customers love, it equally represents products that they have not used, or just downright hate. Some examples that I could see being successful social objects are Toyota Prius and Cooper Mini.
In a similar manner, if you are a politician selling your message or election manifesto, you want to choose some specific topic you know has a strong following, raises emotions, you are very passionate about and will distinguish you from your toughest competitors. This way you seem less self centered, since you build your social network around a good cause rather than your own ego. Examples in this realm could be the fight against poverty (global or local) and the global warming.
Further, when you choose your social object for your social network you want to pick something that polarizes voters (or customers), rather than leaves them indifferent and somewhat content. You need to excite to engage as always in marketing, and for that to happen there needs to be strong emotions involved.
