Why Did Barack Obama Use Social Media?
Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign made history, Not only was Obama the first African American to be elected president, but he was also the first presidential candidate to effectively use social media as a major campaign strategy. Social media activity rose rapidly in recent years and the bigger platforms touch people’s lives multiple times everyday.It is easy to lose sight given how global social media is today, that in 2008 sending out voting reminders on Facebook and interacting with people on Twitter was a big deal. When Obama announced his candidacy in 2007, Twitter had only just started and it is hard to believe that there was not even an iPhone yet.
In the the next few years, social media market begins to change. there …show more content…
is increasing number of social media tools and a rapidly growing user base across all demographics. In the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, there was lots of deliberation about the potential impact of social media this time around. In 2008, McCain’s campaign was as social-media-deaf as Obama’s was social-media-savvy. Kennedy was the first president who really understood television, Obama is the first social media president. In 2012, Obama not only had the skillfulness and knowledge on his team, he had an established social media machine up and running. Since social media is about listening and building relationships, having a running start building those connections was an added bonus for obama campaign. While the Romney campaign was not left in the dust as McCain’s had been, they did not achieve the effect that the Democrats did.
Obama had total control over social media space because his team understood how networks work.
The real power of social media is not in the number of posts or Tweets but in user engagement measured by content spreadability, With his existing social media base and spreadable content, Obama had far higher ranking. Social media also allows information and opinions to travel across networks, like ripples in a pond, amplifying ideas and allowing each person to participate as an opinion leader through media production and distribution, not just by passive consumption. There are lots of social dynamics that influence people’s opinions and behaviors. From social validation to familiarity that turns into acceptance, social networks and the ability to link peer to peer, supercharge the type of self-organizing movement that Obama’s campaign seeded through strategic social media use. A final aspect of the Obama campaign’s social media success comes from the increasing online data collection, The ability to collect and analyze data on a large scale allowed the Obama team to model behaviors and coordinate and target communications based. They could, for example, predict which types of people could be persuaded by which forms of contact and content. The Obama field offices ranked call lists in order of persuadability allowing them to predict donor behaviors and to mobilize volunteers to get people out to vote, particularly in the critical swing states. As the 2012 elections has shown, social media is no longer the “exciting new factor” for political campaigning. Social media is a normal and common form of communications with distinctly different properties than traditional mass media approaches. Obama has set the bar for future campaigns but social media and network structures should be given serious attention in the media strategy, whether it’s for politicians, organizations, brands or public service
initiatives.
The president, while conceding progress has been slow, accused Romney of offering recycled Republican "trickle-down" policies pandered to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
Romney adopted Obama’s 2008 battle cry of change, arguing the country was not better off than it was four years ago. He said another four years under Obama would lead to an extended recession.
The former governor, whose wealth is estimated as high as $250 million, claimed his skills fixing companies would enable him to fix the country and its economy.
The two also clashed over taxes, the economy, Medicare, abortion and health care — with Romney promising to repeal "Obamacare," the national health insurance plan that Obama said was largely based on the health plan Romney installed in Massachusetts when he was governor.
Obama, who made history as the nation’s first African-American president in a high emotion campaign four years ago that promised change, had been seen by Republicans as particularly vulnerable in this election year. He spent a considerable amount of political capital getting his health plan passed, while the economy continued to falter.
Romney also failed in his first bid for the Republican nomination in 2008, then spent the next two years preparing for a second run that began in 2011 with a grueling primary campaign featuring a record 20 debates. Romney, 65, shifted to the right for the primary race to overcome a broad field.
Romney declared himself "severely" conservative and adopted stances against abortion, gay marriage and a path to legal residency for undocumented immigrants while also opposing higher tax rates as part of a deficit reduction plan. Stronger performances by Obama in the second and third debates began to slow Romney's momentum, though the Romney team claimed a surge put states like Michigan and Pennsylvania back in play. They were previously thought safe for the president. Obama would go on to win a victory over Romney, winning both the popular vote and the electoral college, with 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206. He became the eleventh President and third Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote more than once. Obama carried all states and districts (among states that allocate electoral votes by district) that he had won in the 2008 presidential election except North Carolina, Indiana, and Nebraska's 2nd congressional district.
In the the next few years, social media market begins to change. there …show more content…
is increasing number of social media tools and a rapidly growing user base across all demographics. In the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, there was lots of deliberation about the potential impact of social media this time around. In 2008, McCain’s campaign was as social-media-deaf as Obama’s was social-media-savvy. Kennedy was the first president who really understood television, Obama is the first social media president. In 2012, Obama not only had the skillfulness and knowledge on his team, he had an established social media machine up and running. Since social media is about listening and building relationships, having a running start building those connections was an added bonus for obama campaign. While the Romney campaign was not left in the dust as McCain’s had been, they did not achieve the effect that the Democrats did.
Obama had total control over social media space because his team understood how networks work.
The real power of social media is not in the number of posts or Tweets but in user engagement measured by content spreadability, With his existing social media base and spreadable content, Obama had far higher ranking. Social media also allows information and opinions to travel across networks, like ripples in a pond, amplifying ideas and allowing each person to participate as an opinion leader through media production and distribution, not just by passive consumption. There are lots of social dynamics that influence people’s opinions and behaviors. From social validation to familiarity that turns into acceptance, social networks and the ability to link peer to peer, supercharge the type of self-organizing movement that Obama’s campaign seeded through strategic social media use. A final aspect of the Obama campaign’s social media success comes from the increasing online data collection, The ability to collect and analyze data on a large scale allowed the Obama team to model behaviors and coordinate and target communications based. They could, for example, predict which types of people could be persuaded by which forms of contact and content. The Obama field offices ranked call lists in order of persuadability allowing them to predict donor behaviors and to mobilize volunteers to get people out to vote, particularly in the critical swing states. As the 2012 elections has shown, social media is no longer the “exciting new factor” for political campaigning. Social media is a normal and common form of communications with distinctly different properties than traditional mass media approaches. Obama has set the bar for future campaigns but social media and network structures should be given serious attention in the media strategy, whether it’s for politicians, organizations, brands or public service
initiatives.
The president, while conceding progress has been slow, accused Romney of offering recycled Republican "trickle-down" policies pandered to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
Romney adopted Obama’s 2008 battle cry of change, arguing the country was not better off than it was four years ago. He said another four years under Obama would lead to an extended recession.
The former governor, whose wealth is estimated as high as $250 million, claimed his skills fixing companies would enable him to fix the country and its economy.
The two also clashed over taxes, the economy, Medicare, abortion and health care — with Romney promising to repeal "Obamacare," the national health insurance plan that Obama said was largely based on the health plan Romney installed in Massachusetts when he was governor.
Obama, who made history as the nation’s first African-American president in a high emotion campaign four years ago that promised change, had been seen by Republicans as particularly vulnerable in this election year. He spent a considerable amount of political capital getting his health plan passed, while the economy continued to falter.
Romney also failed in his first bid for the Republican nomination in 2008, then spent the next two years preparing for a second run that began in 2011 with a grueling primary campaign featuring a record 20 debates. Romney, 65, shifted to the right for the primary race to overcome a broad field.
Romney declared himself "severely" conservative and adopted stances against abortion, gay marriage and a path to legal residency for undocumented immigrants while also opposing higher tax rates as part of a deficit reduction plan. Stronger performances by Obama in the second and third debates began to slow Romney's momentum, though the Romney team claimed a surge put states like Michigan and Pennsylvania back in play. They were previously thought safe for the president. Obama would go on to win a victory over Romney, winning both the popular vote and the electoral college, with 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206. He became the eleventh President and third Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote more than once. Obama carried all states and districts (among states that allocate electoral votes by district) that he had won in the 2008 presidential election except North Carolina, Indiana, and Nebraska's 2nd congressional district.