Local politicians and Government communicators should take note of the way the historic American election was fought by President-elect Barack Obama, especially the part that relied on the Internet, mobile phones and social media sites to encourage the youth, in particular, to vote. And it clearly worked. Facebook last week had people donating their 'status' globally to encourage people to vote for Obama. But, when I addressed Government communicators recently about online and specialist media and the user-generated content revolution which is changing the way we consume content globally, I was perturbed at the lack of understanding about how social media works and how much control the user has. And this is not just amongst the PC-elite in South Africa, but through to mobile communications too. According to Google, we will have 10 - 15 million South Africans online via PC in three to five years... coupled with the already about 40 million mobile phone subscribers in South Africa alone. There's a serious wake-up call for politicians coming for our own election in 2009 and we may see savvy politicians with a decent pass in Matric Woodwork using viral online and sms campaigns to their advantage to garner votes. Bizcommunity.com will in fact be unveiling another interesting vote result on the site later this week: the announcement of the next Loerie Awards host city/town. The contenders are: Johannesburg, Cape Town and incumbent host, Margate.
Enjoy! Louise Marsland, editor: editor@bizcommunity.com. All marketing news to: marketingnews@bizcommunity.com. Responses to this column welcomed in our new online editor's column archive or on our blog: http://blog.bizcommunity.com.