Barrack Obama Social Media Use
Case Study
The Obama Campaign
In 2008 Barack Obama secured himself the most powerful position in the world; the president of the United States of America. How did he do this? His presidential campaign gained an enormous amount of attention in the press, all surrounding his intelligent use of mobile technology to aid his efforts. ‘’Technology doesn’t win political campaigns, but it certainly is a weapon — a force multiplier, in military terms.’’ (Lohr, 2013). His interactive a socially integrative marketing campaign was described as innovative and revolutionary as it connected Obama to the American people in a way no other candidate has done before; he was the first political candidate ever to create an iPhone application based on the campaign.
The application itself was called ‘Obama for America’ and featured a range of different features to engage current and potential voters. The app was synchronized with all the key social media and networking sites such as Facebook and twitter allowing people to become fully integrated across all platforms. The ‘Call Friends’ feature, used the users own contacts to network, as it was established people would be more willing to listen to a friend than a stranger, this created the start of a social mobile community. Perhaps one of the best features on the application was the use of GPS tracking; it was used to locate current voters and let them know the nearest campaigning events or rally’s, this was mostly done by text to convey a personal touch. ‘’Obama used text messages to share campaign news with his supporters and this helped them feel like insiders.’’ (Spiller & Baier, 2012). As well as constant updates and information on the campaign it brought people together, the GPS system showed users areas that needed canvasing and allowed them to join a neighbourhood team without having to travel to the central office, it gave everyone a voice. Obama’s opposition Mitt Romney also released an mobile application, however it was
The Obama Campaign
In 2008 Barack Obama secured himself the most powerful position in the world; the president of the United States of America. How did he do this? His presidential campaign gained an enormous amount of attention in the press, all surrounding his intelligent use of mobile technology to aid his efforts. ‘’Technology doesn’t win political campaigns, but it certainly is a weapon — a force multiplier, in military terms.’’ (Lohr, 2013). His interactive a socially integrative marketing campaign was described as innovative and revolutionary as it connected Obama to the American people in a way no other candidate has done before; he was the first political candidate ever to create an iPhone application based on the campaign.
The application itself was called ‘Obama for America’ and featured a range of different features to engage current and potential voters. The app was synchronized with all the key social media and networking sites such as Facebook and twitter allowing people to become fully integrated across all platforms. The ‘Call Friends’ feature, used the users own contacts to network, as it was established people would be more willing to listen to a friend than a stranger, this created the start of a social mobile community. Perhaps one of the best features on the application was the use of GPS tracking; it was used to locate current voters and let them know the nearest campaigning events or rally’s, this was mostly done by text to convey a personal touch. ‘’Obama used text messages to share campaign news with his supporters and this helped them feel like insiders.’’ (Spiller & Baier, 2012). As well as constant updates and information on the campaign it brought people together, the GPS system showed users areas that needed canvasing and allowed them to join a neighbourhood team without having to travel to the central office, it gave everyone a voice. Obama’s opposition Mitt Romney also released an mobile application, however it was