4th Nov 2008 was a memorable day in the entire year. The excitement of the day lay in the emerging of a type of media which was pressed to the fore and constituted to a factor which was important not only in the history of the nation, but immensely influenced the history of the world. United States had chosen the first African American leader who utilized technology to the fullest. Barack Obama has gone beyond cell phones and emails to raise donations for campaigns through media.

Barack Obama is coined as the first “Social Media President” in the pages of history. Obama utilized the prowess of communication and sharing not only to spread his message but also mobilize a team of energetic Americans. It was not the president alone. His entire team has realized and utilized the potential of web technology. Each and every aspect of social media marketing was harnessed and executed in simultaneously to spread the message that a definite Change is going to dawn on the US if Obama is elected as the president.

Obama’s utilization of Social Media:

Let’s take a peek in to the technology and social media strategy adopted by Obama.

• My.BarackObama.com : This portion of the president’s website signed in thousands of loyal supporters to share, blog, communicate and spread the facts about the elections. The team succeeded in spreading the facts of the campaign and also involving numerous supporters.

• Barack Obama’s Blog: The blog was always updated and the campaign team added interesting contents to arrest the attention of the visitors. This blog patronized fruitful conversation and engagements. You do not find the typical “spin” that you generally find in other political blogs.

• Barack Obama on Flickr: The campaign team took unique pictures of the election campaign and uploaded them to Flickr. The photos were later placed at the website. The pictures of events, campaign stops, people voting and many were posted. The pictures were real in the sense that they were not taken by professionals but by team members which were open for discussion.

• Barack Obama’s YouTube Channel: You could find videos of speeches by Obama on YouTube. The famous “Yes I can” video by Will.i.am and other inspiring and entertaining footages are posted for public viewing.

• Barack Obama on Linked In: The major use her was the utilization of LinkedIn through the various groups. People and volunteers participated in conversations regarding the elections and the campaigns.

• Twitter & the Barack Obama Campaign: The Obama Campaign Puzzle was not utilized to its true potential. This medium was used to announce campaigns and watching online videos of the campaign through streaming video. This media could have been a little more interactive through interactive sessions like questions and answers.

Social Networking and Obama: Each and every social networking site like Facebook, BlackPlanet and Asian Avenue housed Obama’s campaign. Everyone network based on events, age, faith and race could provide respective inputs and constitute to the conversation regarding the campaigns in the various sites.

Will the surge in Social Media die down?
Now that the campaign is over, it is left to be seen that what Obama does next. Will he forget all power of the social media? Will all the enthusiastic profiles be deleted? Will he forget about the mass he was capable of mobilizing?

It will be pleasing to see Obama utilizing the social media into a tool for political communication and thus keep a close tab on his constituency. He should keep an eye on the fast revolution America which is more addicted to technology and is educated.

Tags: Barak, Barak Obama, media, obama, Obama Blog, Obama Flicker, Obama youtube, Obana LinkedIn, politics, Social President, Twitter

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 6:22 am and is filed under Digital marketing, Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.