I can't believe that I paid money for this book. I'm strongly considering finding Ms. Harfoush's PO Box, returning this book to author, and seeking a refund. Or sending her a copy of Lester Wunderman's Being Direct.
I think I should preface my comments by saying that I work in the online marketing industry, was impressed by the Obama campaign, and was looking forward to an interesting read highlighting the strategy and tactics behind the revolutionary Obama campaign. I found nothing. I found abysmally little insight. The strategies did not make it past basic direct marketing. The book so completely lacks any details that it reads like a high school "How I spent my summer vacation" essay punctuated with smiley faces and hearts over the i's.
For example, take chapter 13 Analytics and Online Media, this chapter runs 6 pages. The social media section can be summarized "Obama campaign spent a lot with google, we got a 15 to 1 ROI". Though what is ROI here? Donations? Votes? Engagement? Harfoush doesn't say. The equally short analytics section mentions the "campaign embraced a philosophy of constant iteration by using the data they collected to instantly adjust and course correct". Course correct what or how, she never mentions. Results of this iteration she never mentions. Did they improve campaigns X percent? Did they find any voter insight? Did they discover that Ohioans love Nafta related content? We'll never know. To what level or detail they tracked or course corrected she never mentions. She claims that "building flexibility and agility into internal processes" could allow companies to evolve and meet consumer needs despite the fact it runs contrary to their philosophy. In fact, the clients I have worked with in online marketing appear to be vastly more sophisticated than the Obama campaign judging by the examples in this book. This chapter, an interesting and thriving field in direct marketing it even has its own cool conference graphing social patterns, is so shallow I can't imagine a High School English teacher would have found it acceptable.
Another treat, the Text Messaging and Mobile chapter includes these gems as takeaways: "Always let users opt in, Create a conversation, and Engagement to Go". Always let users opt-in, this has been an industry standard for years, and frankly in the mobile space I wouldn't be surprised if non-opt communications are illegal for SMS. It has the same problems fax marketing had 30 years ago, it costs subscribers to receive them! Of course you need to get them to opt in, you're actually going to cost them money not merely inconvenience. Create a conversation, nothing new or novel there. Engagement to Go is summed up like so "With the rise of mobile applications and smartphones, new opportunities will emerge for organizations to provide value-added services for consumers in the real world. With increasingly sophisticated devices being released in the market, mobile technology will play an important role in upcoming political elections". Wow. Incredible insight.
There are many other problems: the layout makes it hard to read, also-ran feeling to the narration, aggrandization of fundamental techniques that companies have been using for years ("The last element of hypersegmentation was donation history" she equates not emailing subscribers who can't donate any more "hypersegmenation", blech), etc. I think I'll just stop here. If you're a marketing professional or work in social media do yourself a favor, and avoid this book like the plague.
