BarackObama.com is Web 2.0 At Its Best

What is Web 2.0?

Unless you've been living in a cave for the last year, you have heard of Web 2.0. For those cave dwellers, simply put, Web 2.0 is communication and interactivity between people on the Internet.

How Barack Obama Is Using Web 2.0

Obama's website and his campaign is Web 2.0 personified. Here's why:

• Once you skip the contribution page, the first thing you see is an invitation to send his Vice President pick, Joe Biden, a welcome note!
  
• Then there was the text message sent to millions of people at 3:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time announcing his Vice-President pick.
• The website is rich with video on just about every page.
• There is a "Barack TV" section with channels including "Issues," "Your Story," "Barack's Story," "Michelle's Story."
• The site is designed to interact with those who are deaf and those who's primary lanuguage is Spanish.
• My favorite: The invitation to send a campaign contribution for as little as $5.00 and be entered into a contest to be 1 of 10 people picked to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver, at the campaign's expense!
• Barack has a blog that is updated on a regular basis.

Other Web 2.0 Components on Barack Obama's Website:

• There is a section where Hillary Clinton supporters are asked to join and are welcomed to Obama's campaign! When you click through to the page, a warm notice is posted about Hillary's accomplishments. Visitors are asked to sign up and "share your story." An attractive picture of Hillary Clinton is strategically placed on the page with a video stream of Obama speaking placed in a noticeable but unobtrusive place on the page.
• There is a section where visitors are asked to help fight the smear campaigns that serve to divide people and cast suspiscion about who Barack Obama is. To dispel untruths, Barack has even posted a copy of his birth certificate along with pictures of the American flag on his plane and him visiting and interacting with troops.
  
• Visitors have the ability to create their own "my.BarackObama" account! Here you can create your own blog, raise funds for the campaign, create and locate campaign events, create friends, etc.

Barack Obama's website has managed to integrate every single Web 2.0 component into a website:

Social Networking (the ability to create your very own "my.BarackObama" mini-website.

Blogging - he has a blog and visitors can create one as well.

User-generated content - visitors have the ability to express themselves on many fronts.

Video - there are videos running concurrently all over this website.

Widgets & Gadgets - a resource library, the ability to get involved in a phone bank, the ability to get "action center updates," etc.

Regardless of your political affiliation or belief, model your website after the BarackObama.com website and I bet you'll see a significant increase in visitors to your website which can't help but lead to an increase in clients and sales.

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Carmin Wharton is an internet marketing expert and the Founder & CEO of e-BlackWomenNetwork.com, the premier networking membership site for business women of color.