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If you're an elected official or aspiring candidate, you're probably wondering how you can make your next campaign as successful as Barack Obama's presidential run.

In the post-Obama election era, campaigning and fundraising are taking on new meaning as local lawmakers and aspiring candidates work to enhance their own technology tools to reach tech-savvy — and, many times, younger — constituents. And since "all politics is local," candidates are working to find the right mix of technology and traditional press-the-flesh politics that wins elections.

Almost a month after the Nov. 4 election, e-mail subscribers to the president-elect's Web site are still getting messages from the campaign — and not just any messages, but faux personalized messages from the 44th president himself, his wife, Michelle, and top advisers.

Just this week, subscribers were invited to upload their favorite memories and videos of the campaign season, and the millions of small donors have been guaranteed continued involvement in Obama's presidency.

That's a stretch, but at least constituents feel that they matter, said Rachel Rice, president of Rice Consulting and a Democratic fundraiser headquartered in Bel Air.

"We were so excited to see this on a national stage and to finally confirm what we had been preaching to our clients the past few years," said Rice, whose clients have ranged from Sen. President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and a number of state senators and delegates to Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and the state Democratic Party.

"Our state lawmakers are not going to have that kind of coverage, but people are coming to us now asking what parts of the technology that we can replicate, and knowing that they've got to do things like revamp their Web sites and reach out through e-mail updates," she said.

These tools are part of the "incumbency protection" and constituent outreach work that Rice's firm undertakes with its political clients.

"We're telling our clients that you've got to tell people, ‘your opinion matters,' and then provide contact information for them to reach you," she said. "What we don't want is for voters to say the only time [candidates] contact me is when they need my vote and when they need my money."

The technology trend is catching on in the General Assembly, which includes at least 20 members with Facebook pages.

Several others maintain blogs and post videos on YouTube. Local governments have even gotten in on the Internet action. For example, Montgomery County government recently launched a YouTube site and offers e-mail and text message alerts to its residents.

Lawmakers and candidates are doing the Internet work themselves, getting advice from friends or hiring firms like Rice's to advance their technology tools.

"I recognize that younger voters connect in a different network, and as the demographics of my district change, I found that it would be necessary to do that," said Del. Stephen W. Lafferty.

During the past two legislative sessions and the special session, Lafferty (D-Dist. 42) of Stoneleigh used e-mail alerts to keep his constituents informed about his votes and legislation.

"Using things like Facebook allow you to connect with a lot more people and understand what issues people are talking about," he said. "Obama did it with millions, and as my own Facebook network of friends grows, I'm able to increase my knowledge of what issues are."

But what Facebook and other Internet tools don't allow for is personal contact. That old political tool is still necessary for a complete campaign, Lafferty said.

"I'm still of the belief that you have to get out on the street and knock on doors and get a real direct understanding of what's going on," he said. "I think that's still going to have to remain an integral element of anybody's campaigning."

For Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr., personal contact remains the only element of his campaigning.

"I'm still old school and having a ball being old school," said Burns (D-Dist. 10) of Woodlawn.

For Burns, the old-fashioned way includes cultivating a list of potential donors and supporters, hosting events and asking constituents to purchase tickets for events such as his annual fundraising dinner.

Although not yet inclined to make forays into Internet politics, Burns, like most lawmakers, does have tech-savvy staff members ready to usher him into the technology era when the time is right.

"Those who have been around a while have a built-in constituency that they can depend on to give the maximum within the election cycle," he said. "Using the Obama approach, you can get a lot of small donations from individuals who see you from afar and contributed."

So which is better?

"I don't know from the local level whether one is more advantageous than the other," Burns said. "But I think it has to be a ‘both and' rather than an ‘either or' approach with traditional and newer campaign approaches."

As a lawmaker adopting the ‘both and' approach, Del. Joseph R. Bartlett continues his traditional methods of constituent service and fundraising with annual events and donor lists, but also sends out e-mail messages from his legislative Web site and has started a Facebook site.

"I had some friends who had started [Facebook] pages, and I was one of those people who were slow to get involved because it looked like a waste of time," he said.

Eight months later, Bartlett (R-Dist. 4A) of Middletown sees the social networking site as a way to interact with his General Assembly colleagues in a much more informal manner.

"It puts the friendship back into politics," he said. And it places more Maryland Republicans in the technology age.

"It seems like here in Maryland, especially for Republicans, we're always a few years behind the trend," said Corey Stottlemyer, a GOP fundraiser based in Clear Spring.

"Anytime you're an elected official, especially a Maryland Republican, you're looking for any opportunity to communicate, and the Internet is a way of reading a different and young crowd. It speaks to the change in campaign tactics."

Stottlemyer, whose clients have included the state Senate Republican slate of candidates, has encouraged his clients to embrace the technology.

"You go back to 2002 and 2004, and it's been a constant ramping up of the Internet and how you get out a campaign message, and raising dollars and recruiting volunteers," he said.

Rice credits former Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean with starting the Internet trend years ago, before Obama perfected it.

Tim Daly, political director for State Comptroller Peter Franchot's past campaign, agreed.

"This online communications trend really started in 2000, and in 2004 and 2006 was extraordinarily important, and 2008 was at the forefront," he said.

At McDaniel College in Westminster, political science professor Herb Smith has assigned his classes to read Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody," an analysis of how the Internet has created a substantial resource that had never existed before and provided a convenient, inexpensive method of organizing people, he said.

"The Internet probably ranks up there with the Guttenberg press, but so much depends on the message and the messenger," Smith said.

One candidate who personified this phenomenon locally was heavy underdog Frank M. Kratovil, a Democrat who defeated Republican challenger Sen. Andrew P. Harris (Dist. 7) of Cockeysville for the District 1 congressional seat.

"He used the Internet; he was a distinctive candidate with a number of distinguishable assets," Smith said.

Staff Writer Alan Brody contributed to this report.