Social Marketing Dragonfly Effect Social Marketing and

Social Marketing Dragonfly Effect Social Marketing and the Dragonfly Effect: The Case of Barack Obama "All of this happened because of you. Thanks, Barack," that was the message Barack Obama sent to all of his many online supporters on the night he won the historic presidential election (Chang & Aaker 2010 p 20). Part of Obama's success was his ability to capitalize on the emerging trends of social media.

In his teams' efforts, the dragonfly model was implemented seamlessly, allowing him to gather a specific focus, grab attention, engage and finally empower his audience. In his first run for president, Barak Obama implemented new and innovative strategies utilizing tenants of social media to help spread the message of his campaign. Not only did Obama utilize existing social networking platforms, but he also hired a team to create his own that was featured on his campaign website.

Here, the research states that "the campaign's social network, www.my.barackobama.com (MyBO), allowed individuals to connect to one another and activate themselves on behalf of the campaign," (Chang & Aaker 2010 p 16). The Obama camp hired some of the most innovative social marketers and programmers to create and maintain the strategies of the site. They focused on using social networking as a new implementation of a grass roots campaign that aimed to make real connections with real people, rather than simply getting money and votes.

It turned out to be one of the most successful implementations of social media to date; "the legacy of one of the most effective Internet marketing plans in history, where social media and technology enabled the individual to activate and participate in a movement," (Chang & Aaker 2010 p 16). When examining this in the context of the dragonfly effect, it is clear that Obama really nailed his strategy down successfully. The dragon effect is aimed at achieving "a single, focused, concrete goal" (Green 2011 p 3).

First, focus is created through a concrete goal is identified and targeted. Getting Obama elected and gathering support from all walks of life to achieve that goal. This was successful in view of the dragonfly effect because the goals set were humanistic and actionable, two key elements to setting goals appropriately within a social media context. Moreover, the goal was set in concrete and concise terminologies, "hope, change, action," (The Dragonfly Effect 2012).

The next step is attention grabbing, which is often done through expressing your own personal story or goal (Green 2011). Obama's team really tried to gather up attention from all types of individuals across America. Not only was a site set up specifically for Obama, but he created pages on fifteen other existing social networking sites that helped increase the scope of his audience tremendously. This was incredibly unexpected and innovative; two elements which prove crucial to succeeding within the dragonfly effect (The Dragonfly Effect 2012).

The strategies used to grab attention appealed to the senses and the hopes of the American people. Engaging your audience is the next step and occurs when you empower individuals to want to take charge and help you towards your goal. Obama clearly succeeded in this effort, as he engaged and empowered his audience to become a part of his historic campaign. According to the research, "the relationship Obama built with individual supporters and between them was the unique part" (Chang & Aaker 2010 p 17).

He then strengthened this relationship through micro giving and featuring real stories of his own and people that supported him. This allowed his own story, as well as his audience to be a key feature of his campaign, which is crucial to succeeding in social media (Green 2011). Not only did Obama focus on using images and pictures, as clearly stated as being beneficial in the dragon effect, he went a step further and incorporated videos to really make his message have a personal touch.

Through these videos, he was entering the homes of millions of Americans, speaking to them directly as if they were the sole target of his message. These strategies proved incredibly successful, as many of his supporters established a strong bond with the candidate that had been absent from other candidate's campaigns. Taking action allows the individuals in your social media groups to become true team members and help you achieve your goal.

Obama's team provided a number of ways for everyone to get involved, from volunteering opportunities, meeting groups both on and offline, donation sites, and more. The site registered over 200,000 members and helped the now president raise over $30 million on personal funding pages linked to MyBO, with an average donation being $80 or less each (Chang & Aaker 2010). Many of.