Everyone just witnessed an amazing political race that redefined a lot of ways our country and the world will evolve. As social, economic, and technological changes happen: we are now, just days later seeing hard-hitting, strategic, and actionable ramifications online.

Enter the embrace of Social media politics. Four years ago I would have been hard forced to convince most decision makers how powerful online promotion will become. With this election however, we saw it in action.

As a social media adopter, I am biased in how professionals use this technology. However my opinion and expert conclusion is not alone: even the losers of this campaign are touting the reason they lost.

In a very interesting turn, RebuildtheParty.com launched with a call to arms for Republicans everywhere. It details a serious lack of effort on the Republican effort to reach into the technological minds of the under 40 audience and that the Internet needs to be the #1 priority for the next four years.

The RebuildtheParty effort is being led by an impressive collection of supporters who were unfortunately “a dollar short and a day late” to this election. The contributor coalition for RebuildtheParty includes:

• Rick Erickson, managing editor, RedState.com (Macon, GA)
• Mindy Finn, former eStrategy Director, Romney for President
• Patrick Ruffini, former Republican National Committee eCampaign Director
• Phil Musser, former executive director, Republican Governors Association
• Michael Turk, former Republican National Committee eCampaign Director
• Justin Sayfie, former spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)

Looking at the list above, I wonder and question “why now?” If they had began working together with such a strong message four years ago, perhaps we would have someone else moving into the Presidency. Would there have been a stronger online battle or would it have simply magnified the landslide? To realize that the entire Republican party was behind online adoption trends KILLED a nationwide effort that included billions of dollars in business being done every year. In essence, we just watched the largest business vs business, party vs. party war decided by one team accepting changes in our technology world, and who learned to embrace the mindset of the internet age (not young or old, but those who wanted information and involvement.)

On other sites like Mashable.com, we are seeing interesting questions about social media:

“How will President Obama use his massive Social Media influence?”

Hundreds if not thousands of observers have already noted the key role that the Internet and social media played in the successful campaign of Barack Obama. But when he’s President, how will he utilize the hundreds of thousands of MySpace friends, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, My.BarackObama.com members, and SMS opt-ins (just to name a few points of presence) to advance his policies and politics?

InformationWeek has this article:

“Obama Election Ushering in First Internet Presidency”

Pioneering use of Web 2.0 and social networking technologies by the president-elect’s campaign has seemingly transformed politics, and could influence government as well. The 2008 presidential election marked two great changes of the guard. The biggest immediate change, of course, was the election of an African-American Democrat as the next president of the United States.

But perhaps a bigger change over the long term was the crowning of the Internet as the king of all political media. It was the end of the era of television presidency that started with JFK, and the beginning of the Internet presidency.

Another article from Mashable helps compare the online numbers that draw a very hard and tactical indicator to why Obama won, weeks before election day.

“The Final Online Push”

Two weeks remain in the biggest online-enabled United States presidential race ever. The majority of the polls have Barack Obama leading in most states. However, nothing is final. The “swing states” are the final opportunity for either candidate to gain traction and solidify their candidacy as the future President of the United States of America.

Did this Presidential election open your eyes to the way online networking, word of mouth marketing, and social media is connecting like-minded groups of people? I would suggest you look long and hard at what just happened and begin to apply some of the lessons learned by political campaigns to your own model of business.

Social media networking is transforming how professionals connect online. A decade ago, businesses needed to form entirely new relationships with one another. It started with an outreach campaign- such as a simple magazine advertisement or shaking a hand at a cocktail party. Over time and multiple interactions, a relationship was created. In the social media world, relationships jump through hurdles at an amazing pace… sometimes within hours or even minutes.

One of the main driving forces behind this phenomena is social networking being multiplied by a technology revolution. When you visit this site or many of the other sites I write on, you have the opportunity to do something that is amazingly interesting: you can interact with my readers. Just like at a cocktail party, you can listen to the main speaker (me) or choose to take the discussion down other avenues with an audience member. An example of this technology in action is on the sidebar at 123socialmedia.com, the mybloglog.com and blogcatalog.com widgets which show community members who have visited my site.

With that in mind, I am going to state the true power of what I write really isn’t within the words of this article. It is actually in the fact that what I write is spread across hundreds of different sites and social networks.

What does that mean?

If you only come here and don’t know how to investigate the internet like I do, you probably don’t know I am on Linkedin, Biznik, or Namyz. You may not even know what those websites represent.

In my “universal brand” it means a lot.

An example is if I collect a handle of the testimonials and references I have on those sites:

On my Biznik profile:

Janet Burchfield - Real Estate Broker: “Barry Hurd is flat-out brilliant at navigating the complex world of social media promotions. My brain literally hurt a little, in a good way, after his recent Marketing Strategy Workshop for Real Estate.”

Banu Sekendur - Art Therapist: “Barry is a wealth of information and so generous with it. He is not only brilliant but very easy to relate to and so incredibly modest. He is not just a numbers guys he has a social intelligence that sneaks up on you when you think you have figured him out.”

May Nguyen - Amazon.com Business Development - “Barry is absolutely brilliant. He has given me some great ideas about online marketing and search engine optimization that will be very helpful for my business.”

Switching over to my Linkedin profile:

Toby Barnett - Barnett Associates Real Estate: “Barry is a innovative and forward thinking web guru that will warp your brain if you give him a chance. His cutting edge marketing strategies allow for fast and yet manageable growth for any size company.”
Jeff Collins - MyHaberdasher.com: “Barry really knows his way around the web & can get you great results if you want you or your company to stand out on the internet.”

Brian Crouch - Business Development 123SocialMedia.com: “It’s easy to be enthusiastic working for someone who is widely regarded as one of the sharpest minds in the industry. Barry’s reputation as a social media innovator and expert is growing, and I am honored to be associated with him.”

My profile on Namyz

Peter McDowell - Performa Business Development; “Top notch guy who gives freely of his time to help others, like me, understand the ever changing technology landscape. Plus, he’s super smart and visionary when it comes to internet marketing.”

Howard Howell - That Lease Guy: “Barry knows his stuff. I would endorse him as a business associate and recommend his services highly.”

Kevin Hoffberg - Thought leader : “I met Barry several years ago when he did some project work for me. He’s an extraordinarily bright guy. I would recommend him in a heartbeat, particularly when it comes to technologies related to community building.”

What does this mean?

Stop for a moment and think about the nine testimonials above and how much information is available at the click of a button. Sourcing information for what previously took “forever” is now done instantly. Most of the people above are also present on several social networks. You can read more about each person, you can read about what they do for a profession, you can see who you know in common, and if they have a blog you can even see what kind of motorcycle they ride (Kevin Hoffberg’s blog).

In the real world I would have to request this data and take serious effort to track down a small fraction of the same information.

It isn’t just for your eyes only.

One of the amazing and interesting facts of this type of information is that it is not for your eyes only. My professional presence is “out there” for the world to see. I cannot doctor or manipulate it for every person. The article you read here is the same piece of information ten thousand other people will find.

If you have ever hired an employee or a business partner, you have probably discovered that feeling when you question whether or not the person you are hiring is the same one on the piece of paper you are reading. In the social media evolution, the same piece of paper is being sent out to everyone.

Historical data is relevant online.

The internet has a long, long memory. You can find my writing from years ago on my old blog at www.technicaldisaster.com, it has some great articles on leveraging online conversations, online communities, and even psycho blogging.

This data is becoming more and more about YOU.

Right now, there is a lot of information being collected about you. Have you ever searched for your name or company online and looked at the results? Have you ever asked yourself the question about how many of your associates and friends have searched for your results? Have you come to the conclusion it may be a good idea to start understanding how your professional (and personal) information is being used online?

If you haven’t come to that conclusion, don’t worry. While you are thinking about it people like the MIT Northwest Forum are having entire panels about your information and how businesses are making money off it.

You can read more about professional social media profiles, online reputation control, and online brand management here on 123SocialMedia. Let me know if you have any questions.