Michelle Obama: now that’s major leverage for a social media campaign

There’s a great long form article in The Verge about Michelle Obama’s use of the social networks: “@MichelleObama: an exclusive look at how the First Lady mastered social media” includes a ten-minute interview and a detailed look at how she uses Vine, Instagram, Facebook, Periscope and other social media to connect with young people and convert campaigns into social objects and movements where her image can really make a difference.

The first lady is involved in four campaigns: : Let’s move (healthful eating),Joining Forces (helping veterans and their families), Reach Higher(education) and Let Girls Learn. The first lady’s role has been vital in each of them, and the use of social media central to getting over simple, and direct messages. The campaigns have managed to transmit the importance of certain values to a generation with very different ways of accessing information to their parents, and who use the social networks to find out about certain causes. Activating these young people, who in theory have shunned politics and public life by converting campaigns into social objects, into causes with their own identity and that they can identify with is the basis for modern marketing, and it’s something few brands have managed to do successfully.

Michelle Obama’s involvement in these kinds of campaigns reflects many of the aspects that we increasingly see in the brands that know how to connect with young people. On the one hand, there is leverage of the visibility of a key personality, feeding a major public presence. On the other hand, these campaigns listen, identify communication trends, and generate active engagement, feeding the right communication channels with all types of elements that connect with people.

The outcome is not the “sale” of a concept, but the active identification with a cause, with a social movement, thanks to a vector, in this case the wife of the president of the United States, who is able to transmit all this through communication channels that generate active participation and a presence on the social networks, and eventually the mainstream media. This is a strategy that also works because it is transparent, something the article in The Verge highlights.

I cannot recommend the article enough, and not just because it provides a portrait of Michelle Obama, but also because it draws parallels between the use of the social media and the communication strategies of many brands.

(En espa?ol, aquí)