Online Public Relations Thoughts

It appears that presidential candidate Barack Obama has learned a lesson from Howard Dean's campaign in the last presidential race. He is using the internet as an organizing and fund raising tool successfully. The 5,000 "house parties" conducted for him so far are grassroots organizing at its best, and show the power of the web for organizing. There is much to learn from how Obama is using his site and MySpace. It is interesting that other candidates aren't as proficient yet. Sen. Clinton apparently is approaching the campaign in a traditional way and doing well, as is John Edwards. Time will tell whether one approach is better than the other. Meanwhile, as PR practitioners, we have a living case study from what is happening on the campaign trail.