The presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee has truly embraced Internet technology! Barack Obama won primaries in Iowa, North Dakota and Montana! His campaign raised over $300 million dollars during the primary Democratic campaign! He defeated well known U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton! By using social media and web 2.0 tools, Barack connected with millions of potential democratic voters and raised millions of dollars. How did he do it? Why was he so successful? How does this relate to you and your business?

Brent Leary, a CRM expert, speaker, popular columnist and award-winning blogger who has a popular internet show, "Technology for Business Sake" says, "He can make history if he becomes our next president. Not only by being the nation's first African-American president, but he is also being referred to as potentially the first customer relationship management (CRM) president. You also may even consider him to be the first social media president based on his campaign's savvy use of the Web." Brent wrote a commentary in Black Enterprise Magazine. Also, he created a great slide show on Share Slide. Recently, Brent hosted a recent webinar entitled, "Barack Obama's Social Media Lesson to Small Business" with successful popular business development expert, David Bullock.

Clearly, Barack Obama has adopted a new media strategy and it is having a positive impact on his political campaign! For example, he is everywhere on the Internet! He announced his candidacy via the web! Barack blogs! A blog is a website that contains a individual's personal thoughts and observations. Millions of people read his opinions and political views online! Barack is also podcasting! A podcast is a video or audio file that can be downloaded from the Internet. He has a YouTube channel with over 1,145 videos! On one particular video, he had 1.2 millions views and over 4,230 comments! Over Fifteen million of people have watched a music video by singer/producer Will.I. Am. that encourages people to vote for Barack! Additionally, people can download video clips of Senator Obama to their cell phone daily! "I Got a Crush on Girl", a popular music video about a woman's infatuation with Senator Obama has received much attention! It has recorded over almost 9 million views and over 42,000 comments! Amber Lee Ettinger, the "Obama Girl" in the video has 115 videos on YouTube! Barack has mastered the power of the moving image and successfully applied it to his campaign! Imagine if more entrepreneurs would learn this new technology and adapt it for their own marketing campaigns. What would be the sales impact? How could YouTube benefit your business?

YouTube is not the only network that has garnered success. Barack is active on other social online networks too! He has over one million friends and supporters on his Facebook page! Barack tweets. That is, he is using Twitter. Twitter is micro-blogging. Subscribers can communicate and stay connected with friends and associates by sending short messages. Barack has over 39,594 followers who track his daily activities. Likewise, he tracks 40, 872 people! How many people does Senator Hillary connect with? Just 4,148 and she follows nobody! What does that communicate to potential voters? What would happen if more business people would actively participate in business-oriented social networks? How many more clients, strategic partners, alliances and connections could you make? How would this improve your sales?

Obama's campaign has created over 123 widgets! These viral agents are added to any website or blog to share his vision, mission and message of change! Widgets are mini-websites that contain specific and unique information. Over 4,150 video widgets, 3,252 news widgets and 3240 convention widgets have been installed on websites or blogs! That is over 10,642 raving supporters and fans that have placed an "Obama Button" on their website or blog! Conservatively, if just 100 people saw this widget, that would produce over 1.6 million more hits for Barack! What would happen if those visitors installed it on their websites too! The viral impact for Barack would be huge! What does this mean? What would be the business impact if entrepreneurs had widgets promoting their products and services? Specially, how would you benefit from the exposure?

Also, Senator Obama sends out daily emails and news releases that are distributed everyday to supporters, community organizers, friends, politicians and financial contributors. Millions of people are briefed and updated on a daily basis on Barack's activities, speeches, opinions, views and campaign stops. If more business owners use the power of news releases, electronic newsletters and emails, how would this improve their company and brand awareness?

Most people would agree that Senator Obama's new media strategy has been quite successful! How has this relatively unknown U.S. Senator from Illinois improved his digital image and web presence? If you do a search on the Barack Obama's name in Google, you will get almost 57 million search results! Barack's viral marketing campaign has been a success, not just in the United States but all over the world! If you do a search on your name, company or your keywords that describes your business, what search results do you get? If you are not on the first page, guess who is getting the business? Your competition! By understanding, embracing and harnessing the power of the Internet, every entrepreneur can become more successful!

What does this mean for you and your business? How would this impact your sales and business is you adopted a new media strategy and action plan? If you are not actively using the Internet to attract potential clients, start now! You can not afford, not to start now! Your business might depend on it! There is plenty of opportunity to build your web presence and digital image. You must start now! Ignorance is not an option. Do not let the Internet and others define you, your brand and company! Take control!

Here are some suggestions:

• Conduct a search on your name, company and key words.
• Learn more about the Internet and how to use it to your advantage.
• Start reading business blogs and news releases.
• Discover interesting videos in your industry or profession.
• Join a social network to connect with potential clients and referral sources.
• Start blogging your personal views and observations within your industry.
• Start video and audio podcasting.
• Begin writing articles and submitting them to directories that will search your target market.
• Start an electronic newsletter.
• Initiate a monthly or weekly news release promoting your company.
• Review your company website and your SEO parameters and guidelines.
• Offer free trials and tools to encourage prospects to try your products or services.
• Discover what web 2.0 tools that you could use in your business and start using them now!