Ask any social media expert what the main lesson is from Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign — hopefully you asked the reply to be 140 characters or less — it’s that social media works! Just check out Obama’s Twitter account with 147,000 followers and his streams of pictures on Flickr! It’s no surprise, then, how quickly everyone wants to jump on a winning bandwagon, from CNN to now Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
On the tail end of the Mayor’s office releasing their green technology web portal, Villaraigosa is trying to further increase his nerd credibility. Just this week, he started tweeting and uploading pictures on Flickr, even soliciting for a new media director to help manage all these Web 2.0 doodads.
You can never fault someone for following in the footsteps of Barack Obama. After all, Obama’s embrace of Internet technology garnered talking points left and right in traditional media desperate to maintain their facade as being the forefront of news. But everyone forgets, just as quickly, the fact that as soon as Obama clinched the election, his activities just stopped. A total pump and dump move, totally alpha male.
The real lesson from Obama’s embrace of new media technology is that it garners attention from everyone with a stake in new media technology. In Los Angeles — a city that attracts social climbers of all varieties — every other person will claim they’re experts at social media that can help you break out. Yet, at the end of the day what do they accomplish? Is it just another jig in the cargo-cult dance of signing up for a Twitter account? Just ask Gary Vaynerchuk. People know what’s good and bad. Just as easily you can attract thousands of new followers, thousands more can quickly realize your disingenuity.
To Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: if you want to embrace new technology that’s great. But it’s never about what new tools you can use, it’s about you. Hire the person that will tell you most importantly to be the most honest and substantive person you can be. It’ll shine through regardless if you have an account on Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, Jaiku, Seesmic, or 12seconds.
(Banner photo by Kristen DelValle)
