Today I got an email update from Twitter and some of the featured links they provided highlighted Twitter profiles for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The 2008 presidential contest has been probably the most interactive political event in history with videos being posted on YouTube, debates being held on CNN/YouTube, bloggers speaking out, and new forms of social media growing like crazy. So it only seems appropriate for these candidates to have Twitter pages and that those pages would say something from a marketing perspective.

I like following politics like some sort of whacked out Nascar fan so I ran over to check them out and here is what I found from a purely Internet Marketing perspective. These are only the things I noticed and not my political views so try to hang with me as I point things out. Remember, we can learn things from what others are doing and then apply what we learn to our own marketing projects.

Barack Obama’s Twitter Page

The first thing I noticed about Obama’a Twitter page is that he has over 6,700 followers and that he is following over 6,000 other Twitters. At first I was focused on the number of followers and then I realized, “Wait a minute, he’s not keeping up with 6,000+ people and running for president.”

This was the first thing I noticed, but not the last thing. More on that in a minute.

I decided to follow his Twitter and see what type of messages I would get, how often they would come in, and other little bits of information that might be interesting. What I got, almost immediately, was a message letting me know that Barak Obama was following me.

At first I didn’t understand what was going on. Why would I get a message letting me know that he was following me when I just signed up to follow him. I have my email open all the time so I know it happened immediately, or at least in under a minute.

Hillary Clinton’s Twitter Page

Next, I decided to visit Hillary Clinton’s Twitter page to see what she was up to. This time I noticed that she had just over 1,200+ followers and she was following no one.

I signed up to get Twitter updates from her and this time I didn’t receive an email telling me she was following me as I did with Obama. I even waited for a few minutes and no email message.

I can only guess that Obama’s campaign is running a Twitter script to automatically follow anyone who follows him and Hillary’s campaign is not.

Even though an automated script would not seem very sincere, there is a powerful psychological trigger going on here. By following you Obama’s campaign is trying to send the message that they understand how things work, they want to communicate, and they want to hear from you. They also have the added bonus of acquiring all the tiny twitter thumbnail faces along the side of the page which carries an element of social proof. We might think if all these people are following him then there must be something to it. There is almost a sense of community which is another psychological trigger.

On the other hand, if you look at Hillary’s Twitter page she has no faces, she is not connected to anyone (other than the one way communication with the followers she has acquired so far). We might think that she is interested in pushing information to us, but not getting information back from us. No community, no trigger.

More Triggers

The other element I noticed is that at the bottom of each Twitter sidebar is the ability to block a user or view all their followers. Because Obama has a list of people he is following on his side bar, the words “View all” appears before the words “block BarakObama”. As for Hillary, she only has the words “block HillaryClinton”. This is another trigger that is subtle but important.

Now, look at the other differences between Barack Obama’s Twitter page and Hillary Clinton’s Twitter page. He has a bright campaign background and she has a flat dark blue background. He has a campaign icon as his form of branding, she has her face. He has a light green sidebar, she has a heavy yellowish sidebar. These are all things that add up to quiet triggers that communicate a message. The message might appeal to some. It might not appeal to others, but there is a message being transfered in all of these things.

Choosing 140 Characters

Another thing I noticed is the language of the Twitter posts. Barack Obama’s posts are filled with words like encourage and friends. Most sentences start with an action word and include a place, date, and time. Every post has a clear call to action.

But on Hillary’s, most posts start out with “I” or “I’m” and while upcoming events are mentioned, there is no clear statment of place, time, or date. There is very little call to action being communicated.

As I am writing this I am thinking about how odd it is that we can be measured by as little as 140 characters. If you don’t think so, read both their Twitter pages and see what you think.

John McCain’s Twitter Page

You might be wondering what John McCain’s Twitter page looks like. Well so did I so I searched him out by name in the Twitter search bar. Honestly I don’t know if this is his official Twitter page. It could be a Twitter squatter for all I know. But since, John McCain’s campaign website doesn’t have any social media references on it, apart from his closed McCainSpace online community, I couldn’t confirm it.

But, if this is his Twitter page then he’s making no effort to even appear connected to the online crowd. This might be a good thing, it might be a bad thing. I guess it depends if the online crowd is the same crowd that shows up at the polls.

I know I’ll be looking at Twitter in a new way from now on. It’s these types of real world examples that help to highlight how an online tool can be used and how proven psychological triggers can be applied to get a message across.

What does your Twitter page say about you?

Watching and waiting,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

Another Interesting Site: Politweets.com/

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Rich Schefren’s Business Acceleration Program is set to launch this Thursday and Rich is really working the product launch cycle. He’s building anticipation, generating buzz, creating excitement with free give aways, reporting exciting response numbers, and posting to his blog like crazy.

You and I could spend a month just breaking down all the pieces that have gone into the build up to this product launch, but for today we’ll break down a single post from Rich’s Strategic Profits blog to see how he is promoting the launch of his new product, and so that you and I can learn how he is using important psychological triggers to promote action on his blog.

Read the rest of this entry »

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In Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he talks about all the many ways that we influence and are influenced by others. It is this psychology of influence that allows both offline and online marketers to sell products and services.

If you have not read Cialdini’s book I highly recommend it. I am about half way through it myself and I find myself amazed at how effective the psychological triggers can be and true to life his examples are.

In fact I can honestly say that his book saved me thousands of dollars when I bought my car this year. It was his examples and teachings that helped me to identify many of the sales triggers that are used by car dealers and even financial lending institutions. You can ready all about my experience in my post, how to automate an up sell and a cross sell. I detail all the different ways that the financial lender used to try and sell me more than just my car loan.

Another fantastic example of how big companies use psychological influence, or triggers to attract and retain buyers is the video below by Bryant Simon from Temple University. I the video Bryant give several examples where Starbucks uses the implied association to transfer certain feeling from object and concepts onto the customer so they will feel a sense of belonging, status, and social responsibility. This is a very thought provoking 17 minute video and one that will teach you some of what Cialdini covers extensively in his book.

Think about it,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

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