Flickr Photo: Duane StoreyJames Carville helped keep the Clinton campaign on message in 1992 by hanging a sign on Bill Clinton's door that read, in part, "The economy, stupid." That now-famous catchphrase is widely credited with giving the Clinton campaign its win.  Although we don't know if it was ever taped up on any doors, I think the winning strategy for the Obama campaign was "Transparency, stupid!" 

In this election, Obama rode a tidal wave of youth vote to the presidency, with 66% of voters under 30 casting their ballot for the Democrat. What the campaign realized, early and often, is that the under-thirty crowd communicates differently from the rest of us.  As Allison Fine writes in Momentum, this group is "... likely to engage in two-way conversation with staff, volunteers, and clients, rather than in one-way broadcasts, the style of communication most often used by organizations now."

This meant two things for the campaign.  First, they couldn't expect just to talk AT people: as much as possible, they had to build conversations.  There are plenty of examples here. The Obama Twitter account mostly sent updates about the candidate's public appearances, but the use of Twitter meant that any follower could send a message to the candidate and respond to any of his appearances or announcements. The same idea played out on FaceBook and MySpace.  Although it's certainly interesting that Obama racked up more friends in each network, the really telling statistic is how many more comments and posts those friends made about and to the candidate.

The second implication was that they couldn't always control the message.  Although the campaign was characterized by a tight adherance to message, they let their supporters get in on the action, too.  After a mis-step with one MySpace friend, the campaign showed a great willingness to let a variety of supporters create and distribute their vision of an Obama administration. From will.i.am's Yes We Can video to the Obama Girl to the "I am a Community Organizer" group on Facebook,  user-generated content abounded.

The Obama campaign listened as well as it lectured.  It let people engage with the issues and the candidate in ways that were meaningful for them, their friends, their tribes.  Obama supporters felt they could really know their candidate, and truly participate in his campaign. It looks like his administration may run under the same rules.

This is a lesson every nonprofit can take to heart and put into practice: it doesn't cost money to listen to your supporters. 

You won't have to spend a dime on software to do it right.  You will have to change your old ways of doing things.  You'll need to spend less time talking and more time starting conversations.  It will take a commitment on your part, and a lot of time.  But since you'll be spending less time talking, you should have plenty of that, anyway.