The socially evolved Presidential candidate
Rich Rust,
Reputation Manager,
Yomego
06th April 2011
In early 2008, when the US presidential race was in full swing, Facebook and Twitter were still in their
infancy and Democratic nominee, Barrack Obama, was still campaigning to become the first black president of the United States.
Fast forward three years - those Social Media platforms have changed the way the world communicates and does business and that
presidential hopeful has been the permanent resident of the White House for two and a half years.
So, what next for the man who understood social WOM better than any of his opponents and used it so effectively? Social media
has evolved since the last election and will continue to do so before we know who will occupy the White House post 2012, but one
thing is clear, whoever enters the White House in January 2013 will need to harness social channels rapidly and effectively.
Obama officially launched his re-election campaign yesterday on the 4th day of the 4th month in the middle of the 44th presidency,
and has already shown that social networks will be a key component to this campaign, asking supporters if they ‘are in’
by liking his facebook page. The BBC’s Rory Cellan
Jones asks whether Facebook is the most important weapon in a politician’s digital armoury.
I’m not sure if it’s the most important weapon, but it’s definitely key and Obama is already a long way ahead of
his yet to be announced opponents.
Will this be the mobile social election?
Last time round, Obama utilised e-mail, Twitter and Facebook brilliantly to build support, the PC was the platform of choice for
his supporters and the Blackberry
was the future presidents personal mobile device of choice. This time, his campaign will be galvanised by the opportunity afforded to
it by new mobile technology – the opportunity for simultaneous cross platform messaging and campaigning must make every young
political campaigner salivate. Imagine if Josh Lyman had been able to employ social campaigning in The West Wing!
Far more than just text messages, the opportunity for Obama and his opponents to use mobile social as a core campaign tool is
vast. Mobile ads and apps could play a starring role in this campaign – this technology is now very much in-built in the mindset
of US mobile users with over 10 billion mobile apps being downloaded in 2010.
Polling
Perhaps one of the most exciting elements of how social will impact the next US election is the opportunity for real-time conversation
monitoring and polling around key issues. The opportunity to track key issues in social spaces and then to react quickly has never been
so great for presidential candidates and their campaign teams.
Cut through
The challenge for this round of campaigning for Obama is born out of the opportunity – a multitude of available social channels
across a variety of platforms and traditional media outlets all vying for coverage and noise.
The US political blogosphere will also be enormously important in the battle of the social channels for the presidential candidates -
courting these influencers early on will undoubtedly have an impact as the campaigns accelerate over the coming months.
Just how the election will unfold in social channels is still unclear, what we do know though, far more than during previous campaigns,
is that it isn’t just about web anymore or about e-mail and PC users. The campaign teams for all candidates will need to speak to voters
in the way they want to communicate – in blogs, in social mobile apps, in video and in social networks as well as the enormous challenge
of winning the traditional media battle.
With no clear republican front-runner, the social campaign is Obama’s for the taking, building a ground swell this early, as with
his last campaign, could pay dividends down the road and he’s already shown a strong hand in this respect by kicking off his campaign
with a facebook page.
The Yomego insights team will be tracking and analysing conversations in the run up to the 2012 US Presidential election using our
Social Media Reputation Service.