Social Media and Barack Obama: A Powerful Combination

by stephanie ~ November 21, 2008

“Thomas Jefferson used newspapers to win the presidency, F.D.R. used radio to change the way he governed, J.F.K. was the first president to understand television, and Howard Dean saw the value of the Web for raising money,” said Ranjit Mathoda, a lawyer and money manager who blogs at Mathoda.com. “But Senator Barack Obama understood that you could use the Web to lower the cost of building a political brand, create a sense of connection and engagement, and dispense with the command and control method of governing to allow people to self-organize to do the work.” -The New York Times

In article on an Advertising Age blog, Adam Cahill of Carat Boston notes the campaign’s “goal was to build a movement - create a community, to connect individuals” and empower them by helping them organize and take action. This was definitely present at My.barackobama.com, where visitors could use the site both as a social networking tool as well as a tool for fundraising, community building, and increasing voter turnout.  The campaign also posted 1,800 videos on YouTube and Obama has over 3 million supporters on Facebook.

The media has recently begun speculating what Obama will do with technology now that he is the next President.  Cahill suggests using social media to bring the public’s voice to legislation creation and prioritization.  Change.gov recently opened up, featuring a blog, videos, a newsroom, and details on Obama’s agenda.  Obama has also said he plans to have government documents available online.

I think it’d be great if our new President used social media to continue to get young people involved in politics.  The world has changed in the last 8 years, and I’m not talking about politics.  As time has gone on, the internet and other forms of social media have become extremely powerful.  It would be a waste not to put it into use.  Hopefully our new President will continue his streak and be our first “tech savvy” President.

Here’s some more information on the 44^th President’s use of Social Media:

Web Trends: How Obama is Using Web 2.0 to Run for President

Los Angeles Times: Obama, the First Social Media President

Fast Forward Blog: Social media lessons from the Obama Campaign

Stephanie Jones is an intern at Mediashop PR.  A student at Fordham University, Stephanie is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies.