Pre-Election: Wired

I found a number of articles discussing Obama's new media strategy throughout his campaign. Here are links to a few of those articles and some excerpts from each one that I found particularly insightful:


http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/obama%E2%80%99s-non-reductive-rhetoric-new-media-strategy

"Maybe candidate/President Obama's aversion to generating sound bites is central to his new media strategy of bypassing the traditional gatekeepers...

"Non-quotability is often fatal to those who survive on media exposure, and in the early days of 2007 it seemed Obama's campaign would drown in verbiage. Yet thanks to a deep and wide funding base, he survived long enough to turn that liability into a core asset.

"The Obama campaign is credited with doing an end-run around the media, going straight to the people through email and Youtube, but the candidate's rhetoric aided that strategy."

Obama's knack for rhetoric and understanding of how exactly to reach the people directly contributed to his seemingly personal connection with the American people.


http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/12/04/felesky-rahaf.html

In response to CBCnews.ca's question, "Could Obama have been as successful without the [mybarackobama.com] site?", a member of his new media strategy team replied:

"It wasn't about new media; it was about the fact that the campaign gave new media the opportunity to become an integrated part of the communications campaign of a political campaign.

"I think it helped us to access a lot of people by giving them the tools to organize, to create events, to connect with each others and giving them everything that they needed, so that when they went off-line they were fully equipped — be it canvassing to talk[ing] to their neighbours."

Obama didn't just access social media - he utilized it in a way that inspired people to action.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/technology/07hughes.html

"The [Obama] campaign’s successful new-media strategy is already being studied as a playbook for other candidates, including the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain.

“Their use of social networks will guide the way for future campaigns,” Peter Daou, Mrs. Clinton’s Internet director, said at a recent political technology conference. Mr. Daou called Mr. Obama’s online outreach 'amazing.'"

Not only was Obama's approach to new media unprecedented, it was so up-to-date with how people are using it today that politicians will follow his lead for elections to come.


http://innovatebig.com/index.php/2009/01/20/participation-change/

"But what strikes me about this latest announcement in particular is the promise to highlight participation. According to the post, the President and his administration 'will publish all non-emergency legislation' to allow the American people time to review and comment before the President signs anything."

Obama continues to maintain close contact with the American people through the use of new media, rather than unwisely severing that contact upon election.


http://scottmeis.com/2008/08/31/analyzing-barack-obamas-social-media-strategy/

"It’s mindblowing to think about how the times have changed. No longer does a candidate have to rely solely upon street teams going door-to-door to gather support. No longer do they have to count on TV ads resonating over time. In today’s world, anyone can quickly hop over to Obama's YouTube channel and have instant access to a library of videos about the candidate and the campaign efforts. Over 77,000 subscribers and 15 million channel views."

Perhaps most fascinating concerning Obama's new media strategy was his boldness in going around traditional gatekeepers and reaching out to the American people on their own terms - his and theirs.

Obama vs FDR

Sometime after the election’s results came out, I remember hearing on CNN that Obama was reading about FDR’s 100 days.


The YouTube Election, an article from Newsweek mentioned how Obama is using some of FDR’s strategies.
“President-elect Obama plans to continue using online video when he's in the Oval Office. In a November 2007 interview on YouTube, he told Grove it would be like President Franklin D. Roosevelt's use of radio during his administration. ‘We’re going to have 21st-century fireside chats where I’m speaking directly to the American people through video streams because it allows me to interact directly in a way that I think will enhance democracy and strengthen our government,’ Obama said. There will be some differences, of course. Just as Obama used the medium to respond to Bush's State of the Union address, Obama's listeners will likely use video to respond to him. Call it the YouTube effect.”

So Obama is using YouTube, one of the latest social media sources, like FDR used radio. Some might think Obama won because he used YouTube.
In the Newsweek article, it also discussed it. “The Obama camp, by contrast, took a targeted approach to how their channel would be run. One of the first things they did was hire an Emmy-winning CNN producer to shape what the camp would post. The basic idea was to document Obama on the road and upload speech clips from the trail, clips of voters talking about the senator and informal meetings of Obama talking to his staff. They even had camp manager David Plouffe—who likely took a page from Rick Davis's playbook—give strategy briefings by chatting into a webcam in his office and occasionally referring to a slide. It was, in essence a 50-state strategy for the Web. ‘Today it seems like an obvious decision but back then it really wasn't,’ says Grove of the operation. ‘They [created] a sort of experience that made you feel like you were there and that the campaign was personal.’”

Check out the article for more: http://www.newsweek.com/id/168269

Yet I feel there are mixed opinions on Obama using YouTube and then him getting feedback from citizens. There was an article on readwriteweb.com, about Obama and McCain comparison on social media.

A few commented about Obama using YouTube and new media sources.
“Leadership is not turning around and asking everyone what they want. Its knowing what they want already, and providing it to them because you have the experience of serving the peoples needs. So if he's leveraging the social web because he doesn't know what to do... we're all screwed. Also, we've seen large scale media, art and design used before against the people. Look at Communist Russia, they had some neat posters too,” one commented.

Another one commented, “Obama has successfully leveraged on social media marketing to get his message to the masses effectively and efficiently.”

For more information about the comparison, go to: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_media_obama_mccain_comparison.php

The Economist's article comparing Obama vs FDR had several comments regarding this subject.
One commented, "May be it's overreaching to put Barack Obama in FDR's shoes, but the many comparisons show that there is very much need for another President with the historical standing and vision of Roosevelt. The economic crisis is bad news enough but fortunately there is no Nazi Germany in sight. As Roosevelt himself conceded the War not the New Deal solved America's problems. Let it be otherwise this time around!"

Another said, "There is one critical difference between FDR and BHO -- at least FDR had done something on a largish scale before ascending to the presidency. Would but that were the case today. It is hard to say where things will end up as there is no record to hint at how much of an idealogue Obama is, nor is there anything that tells us about his ability to govern effectively. There are some in town who are concerned that with Obama we will be getting Clinton Mk.II. There are others whose fondest hope is that Obama can rise to those levels of competence. Stay tuned. The tea leaves are still swirling."

To read more about The Economist's article, How new a deal?, check out this website: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12637053

Others turned to blogs to express how they felt about Obama using this new media source. One blog stated,
“Another interesting aspect of this campaign is the audience I would say that I haven’t yet seen the presidential campaign as aggressive in tapping into social networks. Nor has any other campaign found such innovative ways to extend its reach by using the Internet. Just type “Barack Obama” in YouTube searching engine and you’ll see where I’m going…. Barack aims mostly at youths. Quite a risky consumer group to tap into, don’t you think? Younger generation is mostly ignorant when it comes to politics (myself included), letting the older generation have the vote. But in Obama’s case this risk turns into the greatest benefit. He skillfully juggles “youth media” and tailors his messages to fit the dynamics of the youngsters.”

To read more, check out this blog: http://creativemaze.blogspot.com/2008/11/emotional-marketing-helps-obama-get-his_16.html

So now I ask, what if Obama used YouTube effectively in the election? Did anyone watch Obama’s videos?

Going back to Jessica Ramirez’s Newsweek article on The YouTube Election, it gave results from report featuring this. “A Pew Research Center report titled "Internet and Campaign 2008" found that 39 percent of voters watched campaign-related video online during the election cycle. That's higher than the percentage of voters who said they checked out candidate Web sites, political blogs or social-networking sites.”

I think that since Obama sought the younger audience and emphasized with the internet media, it really helped in. An ABC News article by Barry Saunders wrote, “Firstly, Obama not only raised far more money via the internet, he also spent far more than McCain on it. This approach clearly paid off, with Obama's support amongst younger voters much higher than the GOP.” Yet, I can see how President Obama will not stop using the internet. He has four, even maybe eight years, to connect and communicate with the American people.

Tying this back in with the beginning, I think Obama will and must continue to use YouTube for his advantage. Saunder’s article compared Obama and FDR, as it was titled, Fireside chats in the 21st century. Posted on November 19, 2008, it states, “The obvious indicators of Obama's plans are the Change.gov website and his weekly Youtube 'fireside chats'. The Youtube chats are testimony to Obama's canny ability to use new media technology with strong historical resonances to appeal to younger, technically literate voters as well as older voters. The obvious reference to FDR's fireside chats harks back to a time when citizens were concerned about the Great Depression, and FDR was reaching out for political support for the New Deal - the similarities aren't hard to see.”




To read more of the article: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/19/2423615.htm





To see more of Obama's videos:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/52215/obamas-weekly-addresses-jan-10-2009---weekly-address

So what do you think about comparing Obama with FDR?

Do you think these 21st century fireside chats on YouTube are a good idea? Will you watch them?

Obama's Online Impact

We recently conducted a short survey to ascertain what kind of impact Obama's online campaign impacted individuals and their opinions. If you'd like to participate click here to take the survey. The results were interesting, though not quite as we expected. The following is a short synopsis of the results of the survey as of the writing of this post.

First, the majority of respondents (60.5%) said they viewed fewer than five online videos produced by Obama's campaign. Nearly thirty percent (27.9% to be exact) said they had not seen any, while only 11.6% said they had seen more than five (all answered in the 5–10 category). This is surprising because we assumed people would have seen more Obama videos.

Second, we asked respondents to rate how much they agreed with the message(s) contained in the Obama videos they viewed. Interestingly, the majority either said they didn't agreed at all (32.6%), agreed very little (also 32.6%), or agreed somewhat (30.2%) with what the videos had to say. Only 4.7% of respondents said they mostly agreed with the videos and none said they agreed completely.

Third, when asked how much these videos impacted their opinion of or support for Obama, 44.2% said the videos didn't affect their opinion at all, 34.9% said the videos impacted them a little, 14% said the videos affected them somewhat, and only 7% said the videos affected their opinions very much.

Incidentally, the majority of respondents said the relative absence of McCain-sponsored videos did not affect their opinions very much, if at all.

The majority of respondents who had seen videos produced by either campaign pointed out that they relied on information from other media and news outlets to formulate their opinions and base their decisions.

I thought these results were interesting. I supposed that Obama's online viral videos were an effective campaigning tool. Based on these results, however, it appears they were not as effective as I thought they would be. They were successful at getting Obama's name and image out, but that's about it. Most respondents didn't feel the videos influenced their opinions and many pointed out that they looked elsewhere for information on which to base their decisions.

Based on our survey, how effective do you think Obama's online campaign was?

Was Obama wise to use viral videos as a campaign tool? Why or why not?

How do you think online campaigning will affect future political campaigns?

Post Election

"As the first president-elect with a Facebook page and a YouTube channel, Barack Obama is poised to use the Internet to communicate directly with Americans in a way unknown to previous presidents." cnn

President Obama continues to use social media such as youtube.com to give weekly videos to the public. By using youtube Obama is able to have more control of what he wants to say rather than have the news media modify his messages.

"Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter didn't exist when George W. Bush took office eight years ago. But since last November's election, Obama has wasted no time embracing these online communication portals. In recent weeks he has taped weekly video addresses and posted them to YouTube, where most have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times." cnn

Obama is working at getting the majority of the public to like him. The more people that he can reach the more people are likely to vote at the next elections. Dr. Wakefield of BYU stated, "The more people that vote during an election the more likely the democrat party is will win."

Change.gov is another medium that Obama is using to reach the public. In this blog the public can watch the weekly videos by President Obama each week. This website also allows the public to post their comments and give ideas and opinions on the weekly posts.

Obama is everywhere. Add Obama as a friend to any one of these social networks: Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, Eventful, Linkedin, BlackPlanet, Faithbase, Eons, Glee, MiGente, MyBatanga, AsianaAve, DNC Partybuilder.

Barackobama.com keeps followers updated on what President Obama is doing. Feel free to download a free ringtone while on the site as well. If you don't have time to check out the website for updates on Obama just text "hope" to 62262 and get updates on your phone.