In my previous post I asked whether the DA gets social media.

Well I have been told by my twitterstream that the DA had a go at that post – but from where? not on the comment section of the blog where it was written but rather hidden behind a password protected website! so ironically the only way that I can read what they say about me and my post is to become a supporter of the DA, as this whole discussion has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with social media – I wont be doing that.

I am sure someone will copy and mail it to me, and I will eventually see what they said, but does it sound like they get Social? Not sure? well consider this as well.

I asked Helen Zille who has a profile on twitter @helenzille about the DA social approach on Twitter a few days ago before I wrote the original blog post but still no response. Maybe her profile is for telling not listening and she doesn’t want to join the conversation?

It is reported that when the DA launched their new site at which they announced “Our approach is to build a personalised relationship with the DA’s supporters by involving them in our activities and campaigns.” and their strategist stated that they aimed for “engagement with voters via social networking and in the blogosphere” but they invited a only a small group of bloggers.  Surely a social site would involve many of the influential bloggers in some way? The currency of social media is influence in networks.

Because social media is bottom up, it is about relinquishing control, if you want the networks to do the job for you you have to accept that they are in control. Obama did this. The Obama girl series of videos were viewed more than 60 million times. Did Obama feel totally happy about the content? its very unlikely, but he let it go because he understood what needed to be done and how this all works.

The oversensitive, overdefensive DA would far rather have a secret go at bloggers like me and Vincent Hofmann at moralfibre is that leaving it up to the people or is it just old fashioned political arrogance.

Well I think that my question has indeed been answered, the DA have copied the structures of the Obama campaign but not the ethos. Do the DA get social? The evidence strongly suggests that they don’t.

For those interested maybe you would also like to read this latest McKinsey Quarterly report titled “Six ways to make Web 2.0 work”

This is going to make for a really interesting case study.

Photo onkel_wart on flickr

You may ask “where were you?” when the Democratic Alliance (DA) launched their new logo late in 2008. Well the truth is that I  didn’t notice  it until yesterday. Then I noticed the “One Nation,  One Future” strap line which also reminded me of the Obama campaign, then DA leader Helen Zille appeared on Twitter and I thought there are too many coincidences.

I have shown both logo’s above and I am sure that you will agree that the similarities are too striking to be a coincidence, and if they are didn’t the DA or its designer notice what was happening in USA. Are the Democratic Alliance doing a copy paste of the Obama campaign and using it as their election strategy? Well I don’t know yet, it just seems to me that they may be. If this is what it is about then I think they may have missed the boat. Social media and social media tools are not ends in themselves. They are tools that can be used in marketing and building a brand and propagating an idea.

The biggest misconception that the casual observer may have of the Obama campaign was that it was merely the digital approach that did it. It really wasn’t. It started with a mobilisation of an idea, a belief that was then propagated through many channels to mobilise supporters both online and on the ground. It was the idea that was the most important aspect. The idea that The American nation was not as divided as it seems and that together we can make a difference. We are one nation “yes we can” You may watch the Yes We Can music video here.

I’ll watch the DA election campaign with a great deal of interest. Will the DA use the power of social media and mobile understanding its characteristics, or will it think that by using the technology and the medium that they will duplicate the Obama campaign?

Do they get social media?