Now that the presidential election is all said and done, it is no surprise Obama was elected. Election 2008, also known as “election 2.0” is notorious for its use of social networking sites says CNN. Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Linkedln were used to inform voters of candidate platforms and encourage individuals to use their right to vote. Statistics show that Obama has significantly more followers than McCain on different social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter. With more and more people of all ages joining the digital world of communication every day, it is no wonder Obama may have reached more people than MCcain. According to Owyang at Marketing VOX,” Obama showed total dominance in social media for one of two reasons; it may be because the Obama campaign moved more quickly to social networking and social media; or because the internet social networking tendencies were more prevalent in Obama’s voter demographics.
Whatever the reason for Obama winning is, his capitalization on internet community marketing was definitely a success. I am a registered republican since the 2008 election and that is only because I kept seeing Obama’s “Register Now” advertisements pop up on my Facebook page. From here on out, campaigning for any elections will definitely benefit from social network marketing, Obama has clearly proved that with his success.
Resources:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/12/technology/candidates_socialnets/index.htm
http://www.paulallen.net/social_media_and_elections/
http://www.marketingvox.com/election-2008-the-social-networking-roundup-041821/
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definately...I am amazed to how quickly the obama camp adjusted to the new media of the 2008 election. I was impressed to how many close races (where there were wins with less than 25,000 votes). The obama camp used text messages to get the word out to the local volunteers and workers... (I am posting about this tomorrow..) Check out my blog www.myfsumind.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteIt was a very intellegent move on the part of the Obama camp to use this media as a way to influence voters. With race and age already playing a "HUGE" part in the mind of the voters. This was jsut another way to make Obama look like he was "in tune" with the American people and ecspecially young America.
ReplyDeleteObama's campaign was genius in the social networking scheme. Their campaign so successfully merged with the younger generations, its hard to think he's our parents age. I like that you spoke of all social networks instead of just Facebook (like I did). Good move!
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt, Obama used these social networking sites way more frequently to catch a different part of the voting audience. He caught the attention of people who normally wouldn't care about politics, but by putting his campaign on YouTube and various other social network sites, he was able to reach more of a diverse audience.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what Obama would say about you registering Republican with his ad campaign dollars?
ReplyDeleteI know! I felt a little guilty but....all the ad said was use your right to vote....so I did just that.
ReplyDelete