Opening Up Your Brand

A recent article in F@st Company entitled “The Brand Called Obama” dissects some of the reasons for Barack Obama’s success. In a nut shell, they point out that Obama has used non-traditional media and a non-traditional leadership style to empower and to involve his supporters. What he’s given up in control (and brand control is pretty scary to give up as a political candidate) he’s gained back ten-fold in loyalty from his supporters. Whatever your political leaning, it’s hard not to appreciate the success of the Obama brand.

In a related article, writer Kevin Ohannessian offers 6 principles that can go into building a brand like Obama.

They are:

1. Lose Control
2. Embrace the Modern Internet
3. Cast a Wide Social Net
4. Let Fans Be Real
5. Be Open (But Not Totally)
6. Lead, Don’t Boss Around

The short article is worth a quick read. In it, the author also points out that smart businesses are going to have to start employing these principles to compete. One way for a small business to do this is to jump into new media like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, blogs, Twitter etc. – which are fantastically social, but not very focused on returning real business value. Additionally, they can be extremely time-consuming.

Another way is to join us this summer as we roll out BigTreeTop.com – the first platform built specifically to allow local business communities to create Obama-like, breakthrough business value together – without breaking their bank or their stride.