What If Barack Obama Were to Launch A Web Startup?

If you are wondering what the U.S President-elect, Barack Obama would do if he were to launch a web startup, I’m hoping that this post would share some startup success secrets, considering Obama’s successful Presidential campaign.

Below are 5 reasons why I think Obama will be successful launching a web startup…

  • Obama loved his audience first and showed that they mattered most in the campaign and that’s one of the reasons he raise as much money as he did throughout the campaign. He often said that his campaign was about the American people and he focused on their problems and sought ways to solve them.

Lesson: Know your audience and strive to reach them. Focus on your customers and show them love (cos love makes the world go round). Give them value, because they are going to pay you more money for value.

  • Obama surrounded himself with smart people, even people smarter than he is. Even though he’s a highly intelligent man, he’s also a humble servant and is willing to acknowledge other people’s viewpoint.

Lesson: Borrow brains. You aren’t smart enough to succeed on your own. Look for people smarter than you are. If you are good at internet technology, find someone good at internet marketing to partner with.

  • Obama marketed himself and his campaign both online and offline using tools and techniques that appealed to a larger audience. He connected with his audience via his speeches and effectively used social media sites such as Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Technorati, Digg, Friendster, Youtube, etc to network with his audience.

Lesson: Communicate with your audience. Let them see you as a real person who is interested in their needs and wants to fill those needs. Establish relationships with the social media and use it to create awareness about your startup.

  • Obama adopted advertising strategies and mediums that reached his audience wherever they were via Tv ads, radio ads, etc His goal was to effectively overscore the importance of his campaign as well as his programs and plans for the American people. Though some of those ads were considered as attacks against his opponents, they were mostly in response to his opponents ads.

Lesson: Create an advertising strategy that would out-compete your competitors. Use a far reaching advertising medium to target your audience. Press releases and interviews in local newspapers as well as web-savvy publications can sell your start-up very well.

  • Obama enjoyed recreation and had fun even during the toughest times in the campaign. He played basketball and did bowling (even if he thinks his bowling sucks…Lol) and worked out to keep fit.

Lesson: Don’t overwork yourself. Enjoy reasonable recreation and just have fun sometimes.

This post was inspired by Easton Ellsworth’s article titled The Barack Obama Guide to Launching A Startup at TechStartups.com

4 comments:

  1. Temi, 11. November 2008, 14:52

    I think Barack Obama already has a web startup. BarackObama.com is already a startup on its own with all the social features it has (and amount of traffic too). Change.gov is an extension of his internet presence which he might pull down after resuming office. I don’t think a web startup is in Obama’s ambition for now…its more about fixing the US, but he will definitely make use of the internet in his government just like he did during his campaign.

     
  2. Easton Ellsworth, 11. November 2008, 22:01

    Loy, this is a great post. Thanks for extending this meme! Dave Bullock, a friend of mine, is helping run a great site called Barack 2.0 (http://www.barack20.com/) that deals with lessons from the Obama campaign on how to run a small business.

     
  3.  

    [...] Loy Okezie at StartupsNigeria.com liked our Barack Obama Guide to Launching a Tech Startup, so here’s a quick guide for you baseball fans out there. Tim Lincecum is the 2008 National League Cy Young Award winner. So? [...]

     
  4. Loy Okezie, 12. November 2008, 9:25

    @Temi - Yeah, you’re right! I think webpreneurs can learn from the political/tech startup - barackobama.com, not just political leaders.

    @Easton - That’s really cool! Great ideas from Dave! And thanks for the link love:-)

     

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