Obama and Social Media


Social networking is nothing new to the presidential campaigns, but their strategies, tactics and degree of functionality have evolved over time. What has really caught people’s eye is Barrack Obama’s success with online fundraising. According to a Business Week article, Obama’s $51 million fundraising campaign was double that of McCain’s. Ontop of that, the Obama camp has stated that 88% of their donations have come from online resources.

What is he doing to make his online campaigning so successful?

Obama is the first candidate to start using widgets to make it incredibly easy for anyone to donate to the campaign through his social media channels. Obama is taking social media tools and networking sites seriously and is literally “everywhere”. Barrack Obama has a powerful presence on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter as well as commenting on other sites such as BlackPlanet, MiGente and Glee (to name a few). With his presence on all these sites, it is no wonder that people are able to follow Obama more readily and easily. One source stated that McCain barely understands the Internet, let alone uses it in the right manner to captivate an audience.

Comparing Obama’s use of social media with that of McCain’s, it is clear that there are huge differences in their approaches, and it’s beginning to show.

If you visit any of Obama’s networking tools you will see how he engages with the specific audience. It won’t take you any time at all to find the donation widget, encouraging people to donate to the campaign. It’s no wonder his stats are higher than McCain’s. Obama engages his audience on their turf and then encourages them to donate.

This will definitely change presidential campaigning in the future, and it won’t be any surprise that social media marketing will play a major role.

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4 Responses to “Obama and Social Media”

  1. Internetmarketing Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 1:13 am

    That correct, social media is changing the business spectrum that is expanding beyond the traditional forums and discussion groups. Hope Aaron Wall seo book information is well useful for the Internet marketing person that helps in bringing the traffic towards your website.

  2. Therese Says:
    November 7th, 2008 at 10:57 am

    I’m surprised McCain didn’t surround himself with a team to “understand” the social marketing aspects needed to be a better player in the political game! It just goes to show, social media is still underutilized and misunderstood! We’re in an era that is user based and consumers, now more than ever, have complete control over the messages they want and don’t want! POWER TO THE USERS I suppose! Great article Kim!
    Therese :)

  3. Reflections on Obama, Social Media Says:
    January 7th, 2009 at 7:49 am

    [...] The day before Obama beat out McCain in the 08 election, I was attending Marketing Week, Toronto listening to one of the speakers telling us that there was absolutely no possible way that McCain was going to win. Obama’s social media campaigning was too perfect and too powerful. I agreed that it was most likely that Obama was going to be elected as the next president of the United States but I still believed that it was awfully bold to stand up in front of a few hundred people and make such a matter of fact statement. Of course, having seen this YouTube video, produced by will.i.am. of the Black Eyed Peas, I can see exactly what made the speaker so certain. Please take a look at this powerful video and then read one of Kim’s old posts about Obama’s awesome online fundraising activities, entitled Obama and Social Media. [...]

  4. Dunsmoor Says:
    August 22nd, 2009 at 11:37 pm

    great post, thanks for providing so much. Keep up the good posts.! http://www.hoover-f5914900.com

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