Comments on: Social Media Meets Politics: Creative.We.Is.

By: Mark Hanson

Mark Hanson — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:48:56 +0000

Can we conclude that the Obama campaign has just been successful in creating the right vibe ie he is attracting the kind of supporters who are social media savvy and who are motivated to create a buzz in this way?

By: Todd Defren

Todd Defren — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:27:59 +0000

Hi Mark – You can rest assured that the Obama campaign has NOTHING to do with the Obama Girl sensation. I know the fella who created and produced that video, so you can take this as gospel.

By: Mark Hanson

Mark Hanson — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:48:17 +0000

Hi – I’m based in England and am looking at the US campaigns quite closely. Is Obama Girl genuinely seperate from the Obama campaign?

By: zoe

zoe — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:51:35 +0000

I especially like your statement near the end – “I trust the public to suss out the charlatans.”

Trust in your audience, your customers and your listeners. It is a basic fundamental and without it true social media cannot exist.

By: Megan Soto

Megan Soto — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:23:33 +0000

Thanks for this post. I was really intrigued by this video when it first came out. Especially since it was based on a speech from a primary that Obama lost. I’ve been very invested in this presidential activity because I’m a PR student and it interests me, but I’m finding that Obama wins me over sometimes only because he (or at least his people) finds ways to reach me – via twitter or facebook or YouTube. This speaks volumes to me because I feel like, ultimately, if they want to reach my generation, they have to learn to speak its language (ie. enlist celebrities and make the most of social media.)

Thanks again. I blogged about this a bit, but I like the depth you took it to.

By: David Wescott

David Wescott — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:36:42 +0000

The political campaigns still have an issue surrendering control of message and organizing tools. We’re talking about changing the way campaigns have been run for decades. So I think it’s natural that the campaigns will want to reap the benefits of social media – effective small-donor fundraising, self-motivated organizing and GOTV, and the online echo-chamber of support – but most are not willing to take the risks.

The Obama campaign has surrendered the most control and they’ve reaped the most benefit. It still is an inherently risky strategy, but it’s paid off for them so far. A few people have said now that the Internet is the only reason he’s still in the race. I’m not sure I agree 100 percent with that – you have to have SOMETHING beyond a website to survive in a presidential campaign – but it’s clear he’s leveraged the online channel to more than make up for Senator Clinton’s inherent advantages of relationships with big-money donors and the appearance of incumbency.

The political space is also a great source of innovation in social media. Businesses can learn a lot from mybarackobama.com and I’m sure they will be using a lot of those tools in the future.

By: Lewis Webb

Lewis Webb — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:22:36 +0000

I can has hope…. brilliant! I only wish our politics was as interesting.

By: Kaitlyn Wilkins

Kaitlyn Wilkins — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:20:05 +0000

I agree that the will.i.am vid is probably not reaaaaally "social media" (however viral it did go!) But, this take on the original, which creates a "pixelated" quilt version of the video using supporter submitted jpgs certainly qualifies http://www.hopeactchange.com/ Just saw it today on AdRants. I'm with you in that I hope that political social media efforts stay on the pure side (or that the average person can at least distinguish the difference between the real deal and social media swiftboating.)

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:37:52 +0000

Todd, good stuff and great links, will keep me busy for a bit.

Completely agree that the stuff these folks are doing are a terrific example of social media…they are generating content that is important to them and sharing it with their community. In turn the community is interacting with them and sharing it with others. In many cases this is inspiring folks to get active in the political process online and off…an extremely terrific outcome.

Although I looked at it from the campaign’s viewpoint, a consequence of working on that side, it is good to sit back once in a while and appreciate some of the vids/music/posts being independently created. That, for me, is the true sense of social media.

Also…when is this race going to be over already, ugh

/kff