Did Twitter save the Whitehouse?
Rich Rust,
Reputation Manager,
Yomego
10th August 2011
It was perhaps inevitable that the US debt ceiling would ultimately be raised to avert the impending US financial crisis. What, however,
was less foreseen was the high profile role that social media and specifically, Twitter, would play in reaching a deal.
As news programmes were filled with polarised views of the best way to fix the US debt issue and arguments continued to play out in public, the Whitehouse
opted to own the story in a different way, by taking to a very public forum to demand voter interaction and ultimately a response from Government representatives.
@barackobama
Perhaps more interestingly, the account used to lobby government representatives wasn’t the official Whitehouse Twitter profile, but the profile
set up as Barrack Obama’s 2012 campaign account, making this overt canvassing of support part of the campaign, showing that Obama was not prepared to
simply engage in argument and allow the media to represent the story however it felt appropriate. Of course, this was also a potentially risky move, a
highly politicised intervention, using a popular social media platform, it could also have been seen as a desperate last ditch approach to garner support
for a struggling president in dire need of reaching an agreement. Given weight, perhaps, by The Whitehouse’s use of the hash tag #compromise.
If we look at follower numbers, the profile actually lost 36,000 during the barrage of campaign based tweets, which began with the following
tweet:
“You heard the president. So here’s
what we’re doing: throughout the day we’ll post the twitter handles of GOP lawmakers in each state”
However, with 9.4m followers, clearly Whitehouse aides took the view that the power or reaching such a vast number of voters far outweighed the risk of
losing a relatively small number of followers. The LA Times, took a slightly different view, arguing that the loss of followers showed that even if people
voted for you, they don’t like to be spammed.
2012
Obama is, in many ways, as I discussed in a recent blog,
seen as a pioneer of using social media successfully for grass roots campaigning and this is something which, once again, has shown significant value. If nothing else,
the White House can lay claim to its Twitter campaign at least, if not deciding, then influencing the outcome of the debt ceiling issue, as a resolution has now been
reached. However, it’s unlikely those GOP representatives Obama referenced on Twitter, and subsequently urged voters to contact, are going to put their hands up
and say they were influenced by a social media campaign.
For the next presidential election, which is rapidly approaching, this campaign has acted as a fantastic test bed for the Obama team, who will I’m sure, pore
over the feedback, analyse interaction on the platform and try to understand the wider impact of their campaigning. Conversely, it sends a free preview to the President’s
opponents of how an aggressive social media campaign may well be crucial to the 2012 campaign.
Spin
Whatever lies ahead for the 2012 campaign, the fact remains that social media will play a key part in any outreach by Obama’s team and it’s a tool they
know how to leverage to gain and spread support very quickly, in essence, showing the true value of social media engagement.
It’s unlikely we will come to understand the precise influence of this campaign but one thing is clear, The White House is claiming that it was a success,
http://mashable.com/2011/07/31/tweets-influence-debt-ceiling/
Ignoring the rules of social
The White House claims may be true in that the campaign certainly served to raise awareness of the issue, which is a key deliverable for any social campaign, but
ultimately, the tactics employed largely ignored most agreed best practice rules, with the campaign ultimately being seen by many as a spamming campaign with little
more justification than showing that the White House was taking action.
To better understand the true impact of the campaign, those behind the Twitter activity should now measure & evaluate the campaign in detail, by monitoring
the engagement levels and tracking any change in sentiment, conversation spiked and ultimately whether the call to action made a difference to government representatives;
All of this will provide invaluable data in forming the wider social campaign for the 2012 election.