In 2008, Barack Obama achieved something no one else had done before him. He became the first president elected into office mainly through the use of the Internet. Obama marketed himself to 15 different social networking sites, but that's not even the half of it. He created his own website, had an e-mail list, sent out text messages to supporters and even called supporters four days before the election.
Obama's Facebook page
Obama's Twitter page
How Obama Tapped into Social Media's Power
The final numbers for Obama were:
1. E-mail- 13 million people on the e-mail list who received 7,000 variations of more than one billion e-mails
2. Donors- over three million online donors who contributed more than 6.5 million times
2. Social Networks- five million “friends” on more than 15 social networking sites; three million on Facebook alone
3. Web site- 8.5 million visitors to MyBarackObama.com (at peak) and two million profiles with 400,000 blog posts; 70,000 fundraising hubs that raised $30 million
4. Video- nearly 2,000 official YouTube videos watched more than 80 million times, with 135,000 people subscribing; 442,000 user-generated videos on YouTube
5. Mobile- three million people signed up for text messaging program, and they each received five to 20 messages per month; 3 million personal phone calls placed in the last four days of the campaign
Barack Obama knew his audience. His audience was looking for someone to lead the U.S. on a road to recovery. He exemplified "change" more than anyone from any party who ran against him. His version of "change" was brought out through his use of social media, showing that he was keeping up with the times. His campaign helped him not only win the vote of the younger generation, but it also helped him swing older voters to his side. Social media got Obama elected.
To this day, Obama still maintains his online presence. He has over 13 million followers on Facebook and over five million on Twitter. He posts daily to both websites, as they have become his main online resource.
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Yea, I remember reading the statistics about these numbers. he had so much influence with the use of this kind of media that he became like a wonder boy of the presidential election. It amazing what technology can do these days. Good topic.
ReplyDeleteI'd known that Obama was advertising in different ways and that he'd had a Facebook page with ridiculous numbers of friends, but I had not realized the extent. That is crazy. It is certainly neat and I can definitely see how this would have helped him. I can't help but wonder, though, if all those text messages people were receiving drove him nuts. I follow Russ Feingold on Twitter and I know that sometimes I get annoyed by how often he posts, and how little I understand much of them. That's probably irrelevant though.
ReplyDeleteDid you touch on at all his advertisement in one of the racing games? I don't remember much about it, just talking about it in a class. Apparently there was some video racing game though where a bulletin board on one of the racetracks advertised him. At least, I hope I remember that correctly...
Obama and his team had great ideas when it came to his campaign. I remember when he was running for office watching the YouTube video, Yes We Can. I feel that with their use of technology they helped capture a younger crowd by finding ways to relate to them.
ReplyDeletegood topic, and I like your point on Obama knowing his audience since we are in a new age of technology for him to capture that and use it to his advantage for his campaign was brilliant. Too bad McCain was to old to know how to use a computer.. joking of course.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a great way to campaign technique. I believe that if the other candidates would have been up to date on this style the battle would have been way different. I know a UW-W student that was a White House Intern that had to sit in all the meetings and tweet or update the blogs for Obama. The used of social media outlets brought in followers from the younger generation. The fact that more people came out during the 2008 election than 2004, where the Hip Hop nation created the Vote or Die campaign was amazing to me. But now my fear is that voting will start to be online due to the flexibility of the internet and the fact that everything we rely on is there.
ReplyDeleteI think that Obama did a great job of presenting himself to the American public. His use of the internet and social media sites was a great demonstration of his knowledge. I believe that by using forms of campaigning like these he made it easier for younger people to follow as well.
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