SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PRESIDENT

IN 2008, President Obama’s grassroots campaign changed the way we run for office. As of 20 April 2011, he’s done it again.
Mr Obama flew to the west coast last Wednesday, touching down in Silicon Valley to hold a town hall-style meeting at Facebook headquarters.
Did you hear that? Our president is raising money for his 2012 reelection campaign by taking his grassroots networking to Facebook.
Can you see how our world changes? How online social networking is connecting our planet on a scale unseen in human history? Last year, I heard of two tweens who got stuck chasing a ball down a storm drain. They didn’t use their mobiles to phone 911 – they just updated their Facebook status asking for help.
Mr Obama aims to leverage this new lifestyle to win the presidency anew. I read on Marketplace Morning Report that Barack Obama’s website asks you to sign in with your Facebook account. If you do, you’re asked to spread the word to all of your friends via personal messages.
It’s possible that Facebook will become a major battleground for the 2012 presidency. I can imagine people creating poll forecasts just by counting a politician’s number of “likes”.
Facebook isn’t the only social media outlet that’s grown quickly to influential proportions. YouTube went from nonexistence during the 2004 Bush v Kerry race to host of President Obama’s fireside chats. Twitter went from nothing during the 2008 Obama v McCain race to sixty-five million tweets each day.
These three powerhouses are ideal for politicians because voters actually want to be reached there. A cold knock on an unfamiliar doorstep with a clipboard in hand this ain’t. A Democratic media strategist named Dusty Trice came on Marketplace to say that people go beyond being easily reached on social media to reaching out themselves; they want to “like” Mr Obama, they want to watch him speak directly through their computers on YouTube, they want to get timely updates straight from his bosom on Twitter.
You better believe Mr Obama’s campaign smarts will come into play again, with tweets pushing voters to “like” his Facebook page which hosts a YouTube video asking for donations at barackobama.com.
And you better believe you’ll skip the personal computer for your smartphone, where your Twitter app loads into the Facebook app which plays an embedded YouTube video asking you to text “OBAMA” to 55555 for a $10 campaign donation. While you’re underground in the metro listening to music off the same device, downloading app updates and crushing the latest smartphone game.
Times are changing, people. 2004 is not 2008. 2008 is not 2012. At the rapid pace our information systems allow, three hours ago isn’t now.
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