I’ve learned a lot over the course of the semester about the web, technology and perhaps most importantly the audiences that use them. And overall I feel like I have a much greater grasp and understanding of social media. But I cannot tell you what the key to the 2012 election will be. If I knew that, I’d be selling my consulting services to the candidate of my choosing.

However, one thing is clear; campaigning as we used to know it is over. President Obama and his team, coupled with major technology advancements completely changed the way we run elections.

I think in 2012, we’ll see a lot of the strategies and tools used by the Obama campaign implemented by all candidates. But the key will not just be to apply a “copy and paste” approach but rather take the lessons learned and apply them appropriately for reaching his or her base.

What the Obama team did so well was know its tools, staff and audience. They hired the people who worked at and founded the social media sites they were using, they picked the right sites and the right approach and perhaps most important they had a candidate who himself understood technology and loved it. The integration was seamless and everyone was supportive of the decision to use technology as the backbone of the campaign. The next candidates will have to do the same thing.

However, in the year and a half since President Obama was elected, technology has changed vastly. Yes, Facebook and MySpace are still relevant but the users have increased. Twitter is much more popular and there has been an increase in the number of new location-based sites like Foursquare.

The next campaigns need to begin emerging themselves in each of these technologies and have a clear understanding of how they could use them to reach and mobilize their target voters. They will need to integrate both online and offline technologies mixed with traditional strategies and have a staff and candidate who understand the purpose and value of these technologies. And more importantly they need to be authentic in their efforts.