Nov 06

How Social Media Shaped The Presidential Campaign

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Last night here in America, we spoke and elected our next president. That president was Barrack Obama. Both candidates for the position had been campaigning for nearly 2 years and they both used social media to rally the forces but did it actually make a difference?

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Let’s be honest. The vast marjority of social media users are members of the 18-27 year old crowd. These users are vocal, transparent and honest with their online personas and they lifestream a lot of their life moments to the web. The users are well connected, always asking “why?” and vocal about their choices. Every election, the presidential candidates do a bit more to reach out to the Internet population for their vote but those efforts fail because most of the youth in my age group don’t actually take the time to vote.

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There were a few blogs and websites that had polls and nearly every user on Twitter that tweeted who they would vote for, typed the words “obama” on their keyboard. Barrack Obabma had succeeded in wooing the Internet populus but what was he going to do with it? Obama’s campaign had a game plan.

1. Raise awareness

2. Educate voters

3. Increase volunteers

4. Raise donations

5. Win the election

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How were they going to do this? What was the game plan for actually winning an election by spending millions on the Internet generation? Barrack Obama made a point to cover net neutrality, populated his Twitter stream and YouTube channel with exclusive and personal content and the campaign operated an extremely relevant blog. If you’re a young person and you’re trying to figure out which candidate you’d like to vote for, a simple check of the two candidates’ MySpace, Twitter and YouTube content would give you everything you’d need. Obama was clearly the winner based on Internet buzz and now it was time to capitalize on it.

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I received emails from Obama asking me to volunteer, make phone calls and donate. Friends were calling me using the Barrack Obama iPhone app and young people were knocking on doors and holding up signs in downtown San Francisco urging people to vote for the candidate. The buzz around McCain’s campaign was linked to Sarah Palin and most of the talk about his actual plans for our economy were discussed at home around the dinner table and not on the web. The web became Obama’s playing field and he used every outlet. Even last night, when the Obama won the presidency, I received another message from him thanking me for my support and that he would be contacting me very soon for more change.

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This shows that Obama as a president is going to be the first leader to leverage social media to raise awareness for high profile bills, issues that matter and other grassroots campaigns to “write your congressman” in relation to various laws that are being voted on. I can see Obama’s blog, Twitter account and Facebook group to become his way, as president to reach out to young people who no longer tune in to CNN or read The New York Times. This is a new era in our government and country and this connected president is making me feel like I’m a part of the goverment and not a citizen looking in the window.

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  • Many people in Germany watched elections live and were glad to a Obama's victory. They like him much more then McCain.
  • Mary
    I have been so disappointed in the involvement of the younger people-----until this election. I am so very pleased that there is belief and hope and a sense of purpose that has come from the way that social media was used by the Obama campaign to inspire, get voters registered and educate to the issues. There is a heavy responsibility of partakers of this feast of information to check out what is said on the social sites and in emails.
    I am a child of the sixties. The first election I was eligible to vote in was just after 18 year olds were allowed to vote. I have raised my daughter to be politically active, very computer literate, and to use snopes.com. I am very pleased that fine example of using social media has been presented to our public servants as an such a viable and effective option.
  • It was a great campaign and social media played a big role. I think it is only going to become a bigger factor in politics and excellent for mobilizing voters.
  • This is a great post and I love the fact that important people are picking up on the importants of Social Media. Too many companies and people are talking about social media as a way to promote and sell their goods ... personally I think it's time to use social media to 'listen' and I hope that Obama will do this and use it as a chanel for listening to his citizens and not just for broadcasting. I use Social Media to listen and have found it extremely rewarding.

    Thanks again,

    @mackney
  • I have to say that this aspect of the Obama campaign was impressive. I voted for McCain but I am now excited to support our new president as I hope everyone will. I pray that he has the "right stuff"
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