The California governor candidates are obviously in this race to win and win big. One of the most fascinating aspects of this race to me is how furiously the candidates have gotten technology religion. Being a technology advocate, I can attest to the effectiveness of online campaigns, especially as they compare to the ineffectiveness these days of traditional offline media of print, radio and TV. A Forrester research survey reported that 60% of marketers will shift their traditional marketing budget to interactive [online] marketing.

It’s no wonder that celebrities, entrepreneurs, news stations and more are moving to online media marketing. This new media allows direct interaction with and between publisher and consumer. No other media exists that combines the speed of implementation with the analytical horsepower of “near immediate” feedback.

The California governor candidates are an interesting test case to see if they can repeat the success of the Barack Obama campaign. There have been many politicians who hopped on to the technology bandwagon after they witnessed firsthand the ferocity at which President Obama took the oval office. The famous words printed in The Book of Job “Speak and ye shall hear” are aptly appropriate to describe the Internet social networks.

The use of technology has completely changed the landscape of political campaigning forever. In the old days, California governor candidates would have produced and mailed campaign brochures, gotten their message printed in newspapers and scheduled speeches. Oftentimes this required months of planning and hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

Today, the use of social networking sites and blogs literally allow you to speak and be heard … or “write and be read.” Of course, this strategy depends heavily on having enough friends, fans, and followers to make a difference. This is precisely why celebrities like Oprah, Britney Spears, and Ellen DeGeneres hire experts to make all this magic happen.

The field of California governor candidates are no slouches either. In fact, a couple of them have reached “celebrity” status themselves. Gavin Newsom has 1.1 million Twitter followers and Jerry Brown somewhere in the 900,000 range. These numbers put the politicians on par with real celebrities like Paula Abdul (ex-American Idol) and John Legend.

It’s interesting to note that, at least at this moment, there is an inverse relationship between campaign spend and online marketing “success.” The two Republicans who have spent the most amount of money, Meg Whitman ($900,000) and Steve Poizner ($100,000) have the least number of votes by a factor of several thousand percent! It’s too early to tell what this really means. Is it because they need a new team of technologists or is it just that they have the wrong message?

Whatever the answer, these California governor candidates have a huge challenge on their hands. With a budget deficit of $26 Billion, an unemployment rate of 12% an unfavorable business environment, and California’s education tanking, employers and families will pick up stakes and move elsewhere. No matter how you slice it, no amount of technology is going to create a quick fix to California’s problems.

Read more articles from David Chan.

President Barack Obama will go down in history as the pre-eminent Change Agent of the 21st Century. Time will tell whether it will be for his economic and political policies or his mastery of the largest democratic nation in the world, The Internet. Now every governor, “wannabe” senator, and soon-to-be politician is forging full throttle to “book their Faces”, “stake out their Space” and Tweet to their hearts’ content.

The sheer ferocity and speed by which Mr. Obama spread his presence online can only be attributed to one thing … a strategic team and a blogging army. Internet fame and fortune do not come from a single action, but from a series of well-targeted initiatives, supported by a laser-focused plan and executed in unison.

The reasons to extend your brand online, both on the Internet and on mobile devices are compelling … witness Mr. Obama’s wide campaign coverage. But, the Internet is also a double edged-sword. Today you might be a rock star, tomorrow yesterday’s old news.

The business of online marketing requires a solid understanding of the ebb and flow of the Internet and mobile users. The reasons are simple … velocity and boundless opportunities. Information moves so rapidly and the options available so vast that many users simply take results served up by search engines as gospel.

It’s no wonder that many stars, athletes and franchises carefully craft and extend their brands online. Who you are offline is one thing, but how you are portrayed and propagated online is another. In fact, one might argue that extending and protecting your brand online is as equally important as it is offline, if not more so. In our “always on” society, whether Twittering or texting, we’ve become accustomed to knowing the latest gossip about our favorite celebrity or up to the second sports scores.

If you’ve been considering extending your brand online, make sure you have a solid strategy and team in place and follow some simple rules:

1) Reinforce Your Message. You’d be surprised how many individuals, let alone global companies, who confuse the message with the product. It’s not about features and functions; it’s about the “what” and the “how” of the message you’re trying to convey.

2) Be Consistent. Once you start your campaign, sustain it. Many novice Internet marketers will create a website and forget about it. The biggest way to lose followers is to let your information get stale. Refresh yourself.

3) Be Bold … Broadcast. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. Find every web 2.0 property that is related to your topic and blog, bookmark and link. You’ve got something to say … say it!

4) Socialize It. Tell every friend, family and colleague about your online presence. Get them to be your biggest advocates. It’s truly through this network effect when it can become viral.

5) Protect It. Just like in the offline world, there will be times when adversity will rear its ugly head. It can come in the form of negative press or simply a damaging blog from a disgruntled fan. You need to have an arsenal at the ready to counteract these potentially tarnishing remarks.

Extending your brand online, whether it’s a product or service, a company, or you as an individual is a great way to develop a new following or maintain an existing one. Either way, make sure you create your online presence with a sustainable process.

Read more articles from David Chan