This fall during his campaign, President Obama made a lot of noise about how he used the internet to not only gain, but engage and organize his supporters. CEOs jumped at this idea right away. They now had a way to listen to what people were saying about them in real time and be able to jump in and help the snowball of their support grow and grow. Another group of people took notice of the way Obama was able to use a digital campaign to gain supporters: athletes

Don't think that a "jock" would have any interest in acting goofy on camera for the whole world to see? If it means a chance to take home the Heisman Trophy, I think that all bets are off the table. If you're skeptical, please take a look and get back to me:

That video was sanctioned by the University of Tennessee Athletic Department and has been gaining a lot of attention around college football. The department plans to release different versions and different videos pretty regularly (their next is scheduled to be released on Sept. 12) on their site here: www.berry4heisman.com.

Fans doing this for their favorite player is nothing new. You can check out videos for Tim Tebow, or Michael Crabtree if you need a few examples. The thing that makes this different is that the school's athletic department is actually trying to create this viral buzz for itself now. Campaigning for their best player is nothing new. In the past, schools have taken out billboards, direct mail ads and newspaper spreads in the name of their star athlete.

Will this new technique work? Will the voters be influenced? Probably not, voters will decide based on who plays the best on Saturdays. Do I now know who Eric Berry is? Absolutely, and that is more than I could say about him last week.

Kyle Stuef is a marketing professional who blogs on Internet/technology trends, and being a young professional in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor for The Deuce and AnnArbor.com