Results

While much has been made of Senator Obama’s and Senator McCain’s presence on the web, the focus has been on popular social networks and YouTube channels. The candidates have embraced many Web 2.0 trends like never before, and their online strategies have helped to mobilize groups of voters that were not a priority for past candidates. Web 2.0 sites like Facebook and MySpace are great ways for politicians to get a message to the masses, but how are the masses to send messages back?

Both Obama and McCain have tapped into LinkedIn’s Answers function to help voters communicate their priorities to the candidates. LinkedIn is the responsible older brother to Facebook, and users’ profiles center on professional achievements and relationships. Users can connect with friends, colleagues, and business associates in much the same way as other social networks, but the drunken photos and silly games are replaced with job openings and company profiles. The “Introduction” function lets job seekers search for important players at companies of interest, then virtually introduce themselves through common connections.

One dynamic feature allows business leaders or marketers to ask questions of fellow users. Some ask “How to” questions for using LinkedIn, others ask for advice in handling difficult employees, or how to collect feedback from customers. Obama and McCain, on the other hand, are essentially interviewing with the entire country for the most prestigious job opening in Washington D.C. They are asking the public what are their biggest concerns for the future, and how they can improve the lives of America’s business community.

Obama has asked two LinkedIn questions: “How can the next president better help small business and entrepreneurs thrive?” and “What ideas do you have to keep America competitive in the years ahead?” McCain asks, “What is the biggest challenge America faces?”

Obama’s questions have together attracted nearly 5000 responses from LinkedIn’s community (as of the date of posting). People from all professional backgrounds and parts of the country have added their suggestions to the forum. To the first question, one LinkedIn user answers, “Get behind alternative energy. Green energy is perhaps the biggest new initiative taken up by entrepreneurs and investors in the past 12 months.” The second question inspired this answer: “I have noticed especially recently that there have been quite a few people who have lost their jobs because of companies relocating overseas. If we can make it more attractive for companies to stay in the US I think we can stay competitive.”

McCain’s open question also garnered many responses, with nearly 3000 answers from professionals on LinkedIn. One user writes, “Global warming is the most important challenge not only facing the United States but the entire world… If you are elected President, please take this topic seriously.” Another advises, “Make it much easier and less expensive for small companies to provide quality health insurance to their employees.”

Any business leader can use LinkedIn to gather feedback from employees, clients, and peers. It’s refreshing to see political leaders taking the same strategy, and the active community at LinkedIn has certainly given them plenty of insight into the priorities of professionals in this country. Now if only we had some assurance that the campaign aides reading our LinkedIn Answers were passing along our advice…

Thursday, July 24th, 2008 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

By Haley January Eckels