During the 2008 presidential election, a digital communication strategy was a novelty. Obama was the clear innovator with his strong Facebook following, video game ads and SMS codes.

Social media, and certainly mobile, has moved forward at an alarming pace in the last three years. What was novel and a differentiator in 2008 is now old news. Today’s voter is better connected than ever and expectations for today’s political candidates are far greater than in 2008. Today’s White House hopeful must deploy a digital arsenal of social and mobile experiences that should include a combination of communities, videos, tweets, posts, apps, games, awards and badges.

It’s not enough to simply create a Facebook page and open a Twitter account. (That would be so 2008!) The 2012 election will most likely be won by the team that demonstrates the greatest ability to build a comprehensive strategy using the tools that best recognize and effectively leverage the expectations of today’s voters.

Candidates for the 2012 presidential race would be wise to consider the following points when crafting their social and mobile strategies.

Authenticity. Embracing staged or gimmicky approaches will fail. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin have both been criticized for breaking “social media etiquette” by appearing less than authentic. Nothing frustrates the social media universe more than being asked for questions and comments and never receiving responses to them.

Social on Steroids. With the White House on the line, you can bet a digitally savvy election team will be utilizing the full power of all that social media can offer to not only engage, but to educate and empower, their voters.

Facebook alone has 150 million U.S. users old enough to vote. You’ll see the arsenal, providing multiple touch points via web and mobile. More touch points provide more opportunities to collect data, and the collection and mining of data will play a significant role in 2012.

Apps, Apps and More Apps. According to Nielson Mobile, 83% of mobile phone users are registered voters. Rest assured that digitally-savvy campaign teams are aware of that and will be taking full advantage by providing mobile experiences that fill the 30-second to 30-minute window that smartphones and tablets provide so well. Look for apps that break down the parties and the issues.

Look for tablet app experiences fully integrated with Facebook and Twitter that provide a one-stop “Election 2012 HQ” containing everything a hungry-for-information voter would want to know, share, re-tweet, like or post.

Dynamic Infographics. Nothing breaks down a complicated playing field like an infographic. Voters in 2012 will perhaps be the most educated ever on candidates and issues. The voter hasn’t changed, but information is now more available and social and mobile tools provide the perfect medium to consume data in a way that makes sense and takes less time. All of this will come together to break down the choices into easily digestible bites of information.

Reward-Based Mobile and Social Gaming. It all started in Kindergarten with our first gold star—we love to be recognized and rewarded! Mobile and social gaming have exploded since 2008, and Americans have proven to respond well to laddering-up in a community and being recognized for participation.

Look to see 2012 campaign teams exploiting our desire to be recognized by providing election games we can win, party event check-ins, unlocking unique content through usage and participation and badges, badges and more badges!

Fundraising 2.0. The cornerstone of any social strategy is building a community. Once you have the community you can use it for so many things—including fundraising! In addition, your community won’t only help with raising money but with saving that money as well. With an established community, you now have the ability to spread messages at a faster pace and at a fraction of the cost.

Social media significantly lowers the cost of reaching each voter and lends itself to grass-roots campaigns poised for expansion. Of course, whoever has the biggest community has the most influence and farthest reach. Consider President Obama’s Facebook community of nearly 22 million. (The next closest presidential candidate is Sarah Palin with just over 3 million). Think of the opportunity and power President Obama has with exposure to that size of a crowd.

Transparency. Social media provides an interactive “Town Hall” forum that enables candidates to address the issues and communicate with the voters. However, initiating the conversation with the voters in a public forum could also invite confrontation and criticism from the masses. The successful candidate will engage honestly with the community and address ALL comments, both positive and negative.

On Sept. 26, 1960, Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts and Vice President Richard Nixon squared off in the first-ever televised presidential debate. Unlike radio before it, TV brought a new way for voters to experience the candidates and introduced this new stage for Presidential hopefuls to showcase their positions on the issues and connect with the American voters. Who won in 1960? The candidate who best exploited the benefits uniquely provided by a televised broadcast.

Fast forward to today – the candidates for the 2012 presidential election are presented with the same opportunity. Whoever can strategically exploit the benefits uniquely provided by social networks and mobile devices will meet the voting public where they live and speak to more of them. Increased exposure is what elections are all about!

And that’s the only guarantee: A carefully crafted digital strategy, incorporating appropriate social Media components and integrated mobile experiences will increase exposure but will not guarantee victory. Increased exposure means more people will know who you are, what you’ve done and where you stand on the issues. It’s on the candidate to inspire and it’s up to the people to vote.

He’s waiting for 2012′s “Willie Horton” ad, the political ad that flares up controversy across the nation and violently upsets the process. There’s at least one every election cycle — think the ”Playboy Party” attack ad against Tennessee Senate Candidate Harold Ford, Jr., setting off a media fury around its perceived race-baiting in 2006.

But Samit doesn’t think the inflammatory ad is going to be on TV this time around — it’s going to be on Facebook, which will also host the majority of the commotion.

Social media will be central to the 2012 political races is the theme of SocialVibe’s new report, “All Politics Is Social: Social Media Engagement Will Decide Election 2012.” Sure, there was a lot of gaga media coverage about how President Obama used his Facebook page to rally a voting coalition, but it’s been three years since the 2008 election and a lot has changed in social media marketing. Consider how much potential candidate Sarah Palin relies on the social network to reach out to her base by posting videos and commentary — she’s got more than 3 million diehards engaging with her daily.

Through its value exchange (the polite new term for offer marketing) video platform, SocialVibe conducted a digital field study in May 2011, incentivizing Facebookers in big primary state Iowa to view politically-themed ads. The results were astounding: 94% of participants watched the entire video ad and 40% went on to share it with their Facebook networks. That sharing percentage is double the average share rate for most “social media engagement” campaigns, as SocialVibe dubs it.

In addition, SocialVibe calculated that an investment as little as $25,000 in an engagement campaign could spread online to people of voting age in all 50 states within 24 hours. That’s downright incredible considering the tens (hundreds?) of millions campaigns spend on TV commercials.

SocialVibe was one of four companies granted the ability to serve value exchange video ads to Facebook gamers through TrialPay’s DealPay platform. The proposition is simple — watch a branded video, get Facebook Credits. SocialVibe already was the value-exchange provider of choice for social gaming kingpin Zynga.

Interestingly enough, SocialVibe started in the cause marketing field, incentivizing video ads with donations to charities. It’s a particularly useful tool when a celebrity supports a cause (say, suicide prevention hotlines) that brands don’t really want to get involved in, Samit says. Cause marketing is still 10% of SocialVibe’s business, but it was hard to ignore the revenue potential in other segments.

At its heart, value exchange marketing is about offering opt-in instant gratification especially when it comes to virtual currency and items for social gamers and app users. But as YouTube Sales Director Bruce Daisley recently noted, viewers that watched YouTube TrueView ads all the way through tended to be more engaged and have higher brand recall simply because they had the option to skip the ad.

So imagine how much more users are engaged when an opt-in video ad offers them something in exchange. Advertisers are essentially ”incentivizing attention,” Samit comments, noting that social media engagement campaigns have a 90% average completion rate and typically spend 63 seconds on sponsored content.

Even more interesting, the secret to getting users to share is not incentivizing the practice, but simply providing good, engaging creative — then 40% are likely to share the ad with their friends.

Facebook is a good partner, Samit asserts, especially as its targeting eases the task of personalizing videos and “getting the right message to the right person.” However, SocialVibe promises user privacy by not collecting personal data — the value-exchange transaction are completely anonymous.

Samit himself has jumped around the digital world role, origins of Internet auctions, getting in on ringtone mania, launching a social network that was too far ahead of its time (the 90s) to succeed and working with some guy named Eric Schmidt in the Clinton Administration on federal Internet initiatives such as “Net Day.”

Providing services for the top advertisers, Samit boasts about SocialVibe’s 100% customer renewal rate. It’s not as hard these days to sell brands on the importance of jumping in the social pool, he says.

“When it comes to social media, no one is asking ‘Why?’ anymore,” he comments. “Advertisers are asking ‘How should I?’”

“In every era America must confront the challenge of connecting the nation anew,” said Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC’s broadband initiative, a yearlong effort to draft the 356-page plan. “If successful, we will transform our country and, as America does when it transforms itself, transform the world.”

Such high language is being used because the new initiative has already met resistance from the television broadcasting industry. The new plan would require the FCC to reclaim some of the TV broadcast spectrum airwaves and reallocate it to wireless internet functions. And this will be a political battle because TV airwaves are owned by the usual media giants.

The FCC’s plan also calls for a dramatic expansion of affordable, high-speed Internet. A major goal is to ensure that at least 100 million homes have access to networks that allow data downloads at speeds at least 20 times faster than what most networks now deliver.

Change is inevitable, in fact, some would claim change is the only constant. What lies ahead for the communications infrastructure of the United States remains to be determined. But one thing is for sure, mud will be slung in the U.S. congress by representatives and senators voicing opinions by the opposing sides of the battle.

Members of Congress are hiring new-media experts to help extend their reach as they realize that voters, especially young ones, are spending more time online and meeting and talking on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. Capitol Hill freshmen familiar with the new tools, and fresh rules that allow members to post on third party Web sites are driving the hiring surge, according to the National Journal.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and John Kerry, D-Mass., have recently hired staffers for new media, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has a press secretary that is charged with, among other responsibilities, having a focus on new media. The idea is the “broader picture of how we can modify traditional media messages to get the biggest bang for the buck we would want from new media.”

New media use “has become more of a focus in every office” with members using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. House Minority Leader John Boehner directed his staff to work with ranking members to implement guidelines for their Web sites.

New rules allow members to maintain Web sites in addition to their official House.gov site and post material on third party Web sites so long as it complies with federal law and House rules and regulations applicable to official communications. The Senate also updated its official rules regarding third-party sites.

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His campaign fully utilized the Internet for fund raising, communications, as a key component to what was arguably one of the most successful campaigns (as measured by the popular vote and Electoral College totals) of the last few decades. During the transition, the president-elect has not only made use of well-established technologies like You Tube to communicate with the American public, but he has made clear his intention to make a real and substantive commitment to nurturing the growth of technology and innovation by announcing his intention to appoint a national CTO.

But perhaps the most impressive aspect of Obama’s embrace of technology has been his use of mobile technology, which has not just been limited to his beloved Blackberry. His campaign’s use of the mobile Internet demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the power of the mobile medium that many in both the technology and marketing worlds have not yet fully grasped.

This embrace of mobile has continued after his Election Day victory—leading up to the inauguration, in fact, the Obama transition team sent emails to supporters encouraging them to send text messages to get information about inaugural events, both in D.C. and in their local area (in case you’re interested, you can text OPEN to 56333). But the Obama team’s embrace of mobile marketing began long before his election, with what can only be described as a brilliantly executed mobile campaign.

Capitalizing on the buzz generated by the lead-up to his vice-presidential running mate pick, the Obama team asked supporters, and those who were simply curious, to text a short code message to the campaign, with the promise that they would be the first to find out the name of the running mate—via text message, of course.

As a result, the campaign collected millions of mobile phone numbers (according to an official statement)—a rousing success by any measure—while continuing to solicit phone numbers through its other campaign activities. According to Nielsen Mobile, the announcement via text message was the single largest mobile marketing event ever, with more than 2.9 million text messages sent. But this was just the tip of the iceberg.

The campaign didn’t stop at text messaging, although that was perhaps the most striking example of its embrace of mobile. The Obama team also put together a mobile Internet site. And notably, the campaign supplemented that with an iPhone “Obama” application—to the almost audible applause of techies—where iPhone and iPod Touch users could have one-button access to campaign information, volunteer, and donate time or money, among other things.

Unlike collecting lists of email addresses, landline phone numbers or the old standard—direct mail marketing, or PC-based Internet marketing, the mobile Internet is perhaps the most effective way of connecting with new supporters (or customers) and keeping in touch.

For one thing, mobile technologies like text messaging and the mobile web represent an immediate call to action—avoiding the need to boot up a PC and often even eliminating the need for log-ins or other impediments to successful engagement. Mobile also represents a personal, nearly instant, way to reach people since most people carry their phone with them all the time, and consider it an integral part of their daily lives.

Finally, the Obama campaign’s mobile strategy is an example of the fact that collecting mobile numbers and information via smart marketing tactics is instantly opt-in, avoiding many of the pitfalls of traditional email or direct marketing—most notably privacy concerns and incorrect email addresses or phone numbers.

The Obama campaign’s mobile marketing tactics allowed it to capitalize on the energy generated at campaign events—with mobile providing a perfect channel for motivated attendees to instantly connect with the campaign via the mobile Internet. They even implored attendees to text message three acquaintances directly from campaign events to encourage family and friends to join the Obama movement. Once it had collected millions of active mobile numbers during and after the running mate announcement, the campaign continued to use text messages and its other mobile Internet properties to fundraise, mobilize volunteers, and alert supporters about events in their local areas—even solicit Red Cross donations for victims of hurricane Ike.

And perhaps most importantly, the campaign used its mobile Internet presence to activate supporters on Election Day, reminding them to vote and to encourage friends and family to do the same.

So, as Barack Obama takes the presidential oath of office, it is likely that most marketers and advertising executives will not be thinking (too much at least) about what lessons they can learn from his campaign. However, when it comes to its use of mobile technology, there are many potential takeaways from the Obama approach. If nothing else, the Obama campaign showed, for all to see, that mobile marketing works.

There are numerous examples that corroborate this assertion, but the Obama example may be the most striking and, no doubt, the most well-documented and transparent. The mobile Internet strategy didn’t win the election, but it helped mobilize supporters with unprecedented effectiveness and tapped into word of mouth and buzz, and the ability to capitalize on that buzz.

For the most part, the tactics employed by the Obama campaign’s mobile strategists can be easily translated to business. But, as I’ve always said, success marketing on the mobile Internet takes experimentation and innovative thinking. It’s about finding the right mix of techniques and tactics.

For the Obama campaign, text messaging combined with an easily navigable mobile web site supported by mobile banner advertisements was most effective. For most brands, the best mix will likely ultimately be a mobile Internet site with traffic driven by mobile banner ads. But one thing is for sure—mobile marketing works—just ask President Obama.

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The “You Choose 2008″ channel also lets YouTube community members respond to candidates through ratings, text comments and video responses.

Candidates like Rudy Guiliani, Senators John McCain of Arizona and Hillary Clinton of New York have already embraced YouTube as part of their campaign strategies. “I believe that the Web is not only creating new forms of political dialogue but offering a new wave of opportunity for all Americans,” said Senator Clinton in a statement.

The new channel is currently empty, but there are already 70 YouTube users subscribed to it and counting, awaiting the first round of political content. “Online video has quickly become an essential way for the general public to become politically informed and empowered,” added YouTube CEO Chad Hurley. “At its core, YouTube is about democracy and self-expression, and we’re proud to be providing politicians with an environment where they can share information with voters.”

YouTube is requesting submissions from both Republican and Democratic party candidates, as well as from third-party candidates and independents.

Political: New Media, New Deal
With Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton recently announcing their long-suspected presidential intentions, Campaign 2008 is well under way. In Obama’s second book, The Audacity of Hope, he casually notes that he posts to blogs to explain why he voted a certain way or where he stands on various issues. After Clinton announced her candidacy online and declared she’s “in it to win,” she invited voters to join her for three live web chats in an open question and answer forum. Toss in John Edwards’ savvy use of the medium and Howard Dean’s online grassroots initiative in 2004 and politicians have made technological leaps and bounds from fireside chats and whistle stop tours.

The inherent democracy and intimacy of the Internet make it coveted real estate amongst politicians battling it out in an increasingly tough climate. And unlike other industries that are sometimes slow to embrace new media, the political realm is not reticent to experiment with untested ways to reach potential voters. It’s estimated that $3 billion will be spent across all media during Campaign 2008. So the question is not whether candidates will use rich media in 2007, but how they will use it.

Thanks to rich media’s robust capabilities, it is an ideal vehicle to provide voters with targeted information about how a candidate voted on hot-button issues or her platform, solicit volunteers and contributions, or promote a book (on message, of course), ala John McCain. Apart from candidate-specific messaging, rich media is also used to get out the vote. Due to the too-close-to-call nature of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, candidates’ need to drive voters to the polls is greater than ever.

Considering that turnout among 18-29 year-olds increased for the second major election in a row in 2004 — according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) — it is essential that politicians leverage the Internet to reach younger voters. CIRCLE also found that young adult voters respond best to personalized messaging, which can best be achieved with a geo-targeted rich media campaign that pulls in specific information via dynamic data.

Automotive: Choose Not to Choose
I love to read about old advertising campaigns and learn what made them great and why they resonated with consumers. Recently, I was reading about Doyle Dane Bernbach’s historic “Think small” print campaign that introduced the Volkswagen Beetle to the U.S. in 1959. One fact jumped out at me in particular: up until then automotive advertisers did not use photographs to show off their products, rather they relied on illustrations. I find this very telling because in our experience, the automotive industry has been a bit behind the curve when it comes to fully utilizing rich media.

Part of this stems from manufacturers’ and dealers’ competing branding and direct response goals, respectively. While manufacturers and parent companies concentrate on generating awareness and creating demand, dealers are focused on getting people to the showroom and selling cars.

Rich media allows advertisers to create effective campaigns that combine both branding and direct response initiatives. Video and a photo gallery are the perfect features to create awareness and trigger the “I have to get the car” response. Coupled with geo-targeted promotions and offers and dealer locators, fed with dynamic data, and those consumers interested in learning more or making a purchase are easily able to take action. Rich media campaigns can also be embedded with tracking tags/site events to determine how many users later visit a web site and make a purchase, allowing brand managers to clearly and definitely show how rich media initiatives impact their company’s bottom line.

“We remain dedicated to finding new ways in which to engage our readers and provide them with the quality journalism they expect,” said Jim Brady, executive editor of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive in a statement. “We are ensuring that our readers’ political information needs are met with the most insightful and thorough content available on the Web.”

The WashingtonPost.com has been gradually revamping its politics section in preparation for the 2008 election, featuring new political blogs, interactive features, additional news and an expanded database of candidates and campaign information.

The Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive company runs several websites including online magazines Slate and Newsweek.com, as well as Budget Travel Online. RealClearPolitics publishes both original opinion pieces and links to influential political blogs and websites around the Web.

Despite the site’s liberal bent, founder Ariana Huffington describes the Huffington Post, AKA “HuffPo”, as a blog that covers both sides of the fence. To that effect, the site has contacted both the Democratic and Republican leadership to set up the debate.

The feasibility of the debate depends entirely on the responses from the two major parties. If Huffington gets her way, the debates would include streaming video, along with questions fielded by online users.

“2008 is going to be critical in terms of the coverage of the election,” said the site’s founder Ariana Huffington in an interview with Reuters. “We are working to put together the first primary online debate among candidates and working out the logistics of how this is going to happen.”

The Huffington Post, rated the second most popular political blog in December 2006 with 3 million monthly visitors by Hitwise, recently hired a former BBC journalist as managing editor to handle the site’s growth through 2007.

In the end, though, it’s the MySpace users that will choose the winner of the contest, which offers participants up to sixty seconds of video for their personal state of the union address. Although it’s the MySpace community that will ultimately pick a winner, political bloggers from the Left, including Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of DailyKos and Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online, will join the Right in judging and selecting the nominees.

Tom Anderson, president and founder of MySpace calls the contest “another way for our community to express themselves and make a positive impact on the world,” in a press document. “2007 is going to be a big year for political engagement on MySpace and this kicks things off in the right direction.”

Senator Bill Frist also had positive things to say in a pres statement about the contest stating that “the American people have great ideas to offer and MySpace is offering a unique way for them to put those ideas forward”.

Center for American Progress President John D. Podesta notes the interactive potential with the American people, saying, “one of the things we try do everyday at the Center is engage and interact with the online community. Contests like this broaden the political dialogue and that’s unequivocally good for our democracy.”

On January 22nd, the day before the President delivers his own State if the Union, the winner will be chosen and will be receiving a prize package with an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C.