An interesting article from our friends across the ditch, about how to use social networking tools. Don’t act like a salesperson. Interact with your potential members/customers/voters in order to build a relationship with them.

Andrea Mitchell writes:

Obama’s campaign sure got it right through social media. As Obama adviser Scott Goodstein said: “Some people only go to MySpace. It’s where they’re on all day. Some only go to LinkedIn. Our goal is to make sure that each supporter online, regardless of where they are, has a connection with Obama. Obama had profiles on more than 15 social networks, including Facebook and MySpace. The count for this success: 3 million online donors, 5 million “friends” across 15 social network platforms (3 million on Facebook alone), nearly 2 000 official YouTube videos watched more than 80 million times, with 135 000 subscribers and 442 000 user-generated videos on YouTube. The list goes on.

Web 2.0 is all about the conversation. Smart politicians (and unions, and businesses) ignore the platform (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and are present where their voters (customers/members) are. If they are on Facebook, be on Facebook. If they are on Twitter, be on Twitter. If they are everywhere, be everywhere. If they are only one place, be there.

People on those social networks don’t want to be sold things. They don’t want a cookie-cutter experience. They want customisation, simplicity and an experience with a real human being. Communicate, don’t sell.