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Role of IT media crucial in Obama election win
THEY say that change came to America on November 4, 2008. And indeed it did – in more ways than one.
This is the election in which Web 2.0 played a significant role in allowing American citizens, and people around the world, to feel that were taking an active role in democracy.
So how did online social media shape the election of 2008 and what can business learn from it?
There was a wide range of tactics used to reach audiences that traditionally shy away from the voting booth. Both candidates put serious effort into reaching people via social networks, YouTube and Second Life.
You have to admire the creative thinking behind some digital campaign initiatives. On John McCain's website and you can play Pork Invaders, a version of Space Invaders with a message about wasteful government spending. And the popular online games Guitar Hero 3 and The Incredible Hulk both sport in-game ads for Barack Obama.
But above and beyond the obvious branding opportunities, the candidates used social media to engage individuals in a way never seen before, and the record turn out on polling day speaks volumes about the effectiveness of such communication. Barack Obama couldn't have been smarter. He hired Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes as his digital campaign strategist. Hughes was responsible for creating the candidate's own social network My.BarackObama.com
The site is, in my opinion, a case study on how to leverage social media for any organisation. It's design is simple, there's plenty of rich content and lots of opportunity for visitors to participate and interact too.
Importantly, there are 'Donate Now' buttons galore and tons of Obama swag on sale on the landing page.
The campaign organisers credit this site and its community with a significant part of the Democrats' record fundraising success.
John McCain, too, was on Facebook with a fan base of almost 700,000.
His page served as a central repository for content relating to the campaign, blog posts, rich media, debate, calendars of events and more.
It seems that McCain himself was responsible for posting content and drafting blog content.
Strange for a man that has confessed he struggles with using email; I suspect he had more than a little help.
Of course the internet played against the candidates too. The now infamous Palin Prank in which a Montreal radio personality impersonated Nicolas Sarkozy on a call with Sarah Palin will go down in history. It ran for more than seven minutes and despite the many outrageous statements made ('my wife Carla, she's so hot...') , Palin never figured out it was a con. The call went out live to an audience of a couple of hundred thousand in the metro Montreal area. But on YouTube it reached a global audience and had millions of downloads.
Palin's credibility took a significant hit, and some say this prank was the final nail in the coffin for the already shaky Republican campaign.
Then there was Twitter. The micro blogging service became a popular channel for people to express their opinions and discuss election issues in realtime.
Both candidates had feeds running, although Obama used Twitter to best effect because it was the man himself taking part in the conversation, not a staffer.
Current.com ran a live stream of the presidential debates and integrated the broadcast with a live feed of Twitter comments (tweets).
One non-partisan volunteer effort saw the creation of the Twitter Vote Report which allowed voters to tweet reports from polling locations to alert other users to wait times and other voting news.
And so that any world citizen could take part in the US election, TwitVote allowed people to vote regardless of registration status. It was just for fun, but a cool way to engage international audiences.
Twitter had its own filter for election coverage which highlighted the torrent of real-time updates. Its search feature also showed the US election as the top of trending topics, with votereport and 'I Voted' the top two trends on election day.
And on that day, excitement had reached a fever pitch and people were using social media like mad. Facebook let people donate their status feeds to getting out the vote. YouTube offered a 'Video YourVote' service. UStream.tv enabled bloggers to carry live video on their own sites. In the same vein, PerspectTV offered a set of live-updated graphs, blog widgets, electoral maps to bloggers.
And hundreds of other internet sites offered interactive services throughout the day which allowed people to participate all day long.
People say that Barack Obama will bring change to America. I'd say, it was change that brought Obama to the Whitehouse...a fundamental change in democracy that was enabled by Web 2.0.
>>Sherrilynne Starkie is the managing partner of Strive Public Relations, a strategic communications consultancy serving the Isle of Man. Visit her business blog, Strive Notes for frequent updates www.strivepr.com/notes or follow her on twitter.com/sherrilynne
>> Listen to Sherrilynne on radio show
ISLAND public relations boss and columnist for the Examiner's Business News Sherilynne Starkie is a guest panelist on a well-known online radio show this week.
The managing director of Douglas-based Strive Public Relations Ltd, will appear on For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report (FIR) - a podcast which explores the intersection of online communication and public relations.
The panelists will discuss recent suggestions that startup companies can do their own PR just as effectively as a professional.
The show will be broadcast live at 6pm and can be listened to on www.blogtalkradio.com or www.forimmediaterelease.biz
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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