Internet and social media played the key role in Barack Obama’s successful campaign. Moreover Obama’s online strategy will remain the textbook example of interactive marketing best practices for the foreseeable future. There are many articles available on the Internet which deal with the digital impact on the election, analyzing the different social media tools employed by Obama.
Obama’s approach to social media
For example, his use of donation widgets, which were placed on all of his profiles in various social media platforms, resulting in up to 88% of donations deriving from online sources. Or his profiles on social networks – every profile customized towards the target audience of that particular site. With Facebook and MySpace he reached the younger target group, on eon the “boomers”, on LinkedIn professionals, on black planet the African Americans, MiGente targeted the Latinos and GLEE the gays and lesbians. On Flickr, you could see pictures not only of his campaign but also of personal moments with his family, not to forget about his profile on Twitter or his separate YouTube channel.
Compared to McCain, Obama showed clear dominance in social media for probably two reasons: a) because the Obama campaign moved more quickly to social networking and social media. b) because the social technographics (behavior in adopting social media) slant more heavily toward Obama’s voter demographics.
Change.gov: Sudden disappearance of content was at issue
So, from now on many people will have an eye on how Obama will continue the digital dialogue with the American public. On Thursday 6th November, the official website of US President-Elect Barack Obama for his transition to the White House went online. On www.change.gov people have a chance to say what they think his priorities should be, track the transition to his new administration, tell their personal stories and even apply for federal jobs.
Since the new website was unveiled, bloggers have been observing the online presence and quickly note small changes on the site. There were blog posts about why the “Agenda” section, which – at launch – contained content virtually identical to content on Obama’s campaign website has been retooled and for a while contained only a generic paragraph about Obama’s proposed agenda. If the content had never been included on change.gov in the first place, the questions wouldn’t have been asked. It was the “sudden disappearance” that was at issue. Shows clearly that Obama’s team has to pay attention to the manner in which the media and bloggers respond to site changes, additions and the handling of content in general to avoid the emergence of conspiracy theories and trumped up charges emerging.
Pro
Get people more involved in their government, by keeping them abreast of issues and urging them to contact their representatives to push policy forward
Con
Small changes breed big conspiracies
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