Ronald Reagan was known as “The Great Communicator.” Barrack Obama will have a similar legacy. Agree with him or not, the man is a powerful communicator which gives him and his party a tremendous advantage in selling ideas. Barrack leveraged technology and social media to extend his reach to his audience. Blog posts mentioning Barrack outnumbered his opponent 3 to 1. Barrack had 24 times the followers on Twitter than McCain, which means Barrack had a much more engaged and energized constituency. As noted by Phil Ayres, Barrack’s vision and leadership played a large part in mobilizing his supporters (you can’t have influence with people if they don’t trust you). But vision and leadership aside, he leveraged technology to spread his message at historical levels. And this trend will continue…

Traditionally, the president gives a weekly radio address to the nation. If you happen to be standing next to a radio when he gives the address, or when it’s played back, you get to hear it. Personally, I’ve never heard a single radio address…I don’t listen to talk radio. I’ve heard clips played back, but I’ve never heard the full thing. Now, Obama announced he’ll do his weekly updates via YouTube. What does this mean? It means that people will now subscribe to his weekly messages and play them back at their own convenience. It means millions more people will have Obama staring them in the eye each week. It means Obama will be able to make the hard sells to the American people to get things done, much like Reagan did. It also confirms that traditional television is no longer the primary medium for spreading news and ideas. Pure genius. I really don’t agree with his world view and a lot of his policy objectives, but I admire his intelligence and style. Technology is changing everything…politics, business, social life, everything.

In the pre-internet age, television was best suited to reach a large audience. Marketers had an idea of where people would be sitting (in front of the tube) and could guess at the programs their target audience was watching. It was/is a very impersonal, top-down exchange of information.

Now the rules have changed…dramatically! Instead of creating ads that are acceptable by everyone and offensive to no one, companies leverage powerful tools to reach specific audiences. Instead of marketing to everyone, smart companies like Activision are zeroing their focus on people that talk, spread the message, and do the marketing for them. Introduce the message and let the consumers bounce it around.

The below video is a brilliant example! It’s had over 1.3 million views in less than a week. If I were a Guitar Hero fan, I’d be sharing this with my teenage buddies. The ad is inappropriate for mainstream, but it’s just right for Activision (and cheap). If GH is cool enough for Heidi Klum to play in her underwear, it’s pretty cool, period! And if you find the video offensive, don’t worry, they’re not talking to you.

Seth Godin shared an excerpt from his upcoming book, Tribes. Excuse the typos…it’s the way it was posted. Enjoy.

Here are two excerpts from the book…

The Elements of Leadership
Leaders challenge the status quo.
Leaders communicate their vision of the future.
Leaders commit to a vision and decisions based on that commitment.
Leaders create a culture around their goal and involve others in that culture.
Leaders have an extraordinary amount of curiosity about the world they’re trying to change.
Leaders use charisma (in a variety of forms) to attract and motivate followers.
Leaders connect their followers to each other.

Sorry for the alliteration, but that’s the it worked out.

If you consider the leaders in your organization or community, you’ll see that many of them uses some combination of these seven elements. You don’t have to be in charge or powerful or pretty or connected to be a leader. You do have to be committed.

Understanding Charisma
Think about the charismatic leaders you’ve encountered. They might be young or old, rich or poor, black or white, male or female, extroverted or shy. In fact, the only thing they seem to have in common is that they are leaders.

I think most people have it upside down. Being charismatic doesn’t you a leader. Being a leader you charismatic.

There are leaders with speech impediments and a fear of public speaking. Leaders down the corporate ladder and leaders with no my or obvious trappings of power. There are ugly leaders, too, so charisma certainly isn’t about being attractive.

It’s easy to give in to your fear and tell yourself that you don’t have what it takes to lead. Mostly, people give up when they to the charisma part of the checklist. “I wasn’t born charismatic, not those other guys, so I guess I’ll settle for following.”

The flaw in this reasoning is that those other guys weren’t born charismatic, either. It’s a choice, not a gift.

In a Twit today, Chris Brogan said, “The edge is where value lies.  Small and personalized win.”  

Who said you need to write over 100 words to make a profound point?  Now with ubiquitous web access, there’s a world of  infinite opportunity to satisfy endless and unique demands.  The shotgun/mass marketing method is out of touch.  Instead of making the next “Facebook,” the opportunity lies in leading and providing value to much smaller niche groups.  In today’s TechCrunch 50  seminar, 50 start up companies were launched in San Fran.  Out of the companies I read about, they were all targeting weird, obscure markets i.e. 8 year old kids who were interested in finances, young kids interested in social networking, and Ashton Kucher pitched his Blah Girls site which targets teenagers interested in hearing about interesting gossip.  To summarize: The edge is where value lies.  

Chris Brogan also posted this presentation he plans on giving soon.  It’s pretty cool.