Obama's Mailing List - It's not what you know...

I read an interesting article on Bloombert (here's the link) that spoke about Barack Obama's most valuable asset developed over the course of his Presidential campaign: his mailing list. Two million people have not only sent Mr. Obama their hard earned money, but they have given him, and his campaign, their personal contact information - information that may prove to be Mr. Obama's ace-in-the-hole regardless of the outcome of the Democratic convention.

Via his own website as well as via social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace, Barack Obama has a marketing database that has allowed him to fill stadiums with supporters from coast-to-coast. Whether as a gold mine for future candidates looking to raise funds or as a powerful communication tool, the article goes on to explain how this mailing list will make him a power broker in the Democratic party for years to come. The only real thing that's surprising about this, however, is that it took the politicians this long to figure out what every teenager new already for years.

It's who you know and Mr. Obama knows a lot of people willing to part with their money in support of a candidate that they favor. He also happens to know a few techies. Chris Hughes, a 24-year-old Facebook co-founder is a full-time campaign staffer and helped create Mr. Obama's own website. Via the site, they've put every new member to work as a member of the campaign creating a quasi-pyramid scheme working to build on the campaign's success.

You really have to commend the Obama campaign for taking advantage of the tools out there. There's no way to know how much of a role this has played in the differential between the Obama and Clinton campaigns, but the fact that the Barack Obama Facebook site has about 5-times the number of friends is hard to overlook.

Now, from the perspective of a business guy, how can this approach to building a brand help other businesses and business people?