Blog 2: Examples of doing it right

Why Republican's Don't Get the Internet

Obama's Social Media Campaign 2008

I chose to divulge on the 2008 presidential campaign, because it is one of the most obvious indicators of social media marketing's importance in today's society. There is no argument that Obama owes much of his campaign success to his faith in social media while it was still a relatively new medium. It proved a tried and true mechanism when it came to gaining popularity among the masses of the United States.

Above you will see two articles. The first is written from the perspective of John McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain. Like her father, she is also a Republican. With all of her sympathies aside, she wrote an interesting essay pinpointing the Republican party's misuse of the internet and why it inevitably lead to her father's loss in the Presidential campaign. Though the campaign generated an unprecedented one fourth of the donations, it did not help with the issue of inspiring indifferent voters. She claims that not it is not that either party is more or less inept at using social media, but that the Democratic party did a better job at creating a cult-like following with grass root campaigning. At the time of election day, President Obama had over five and half million Facebook supporters while McCain had a mere five hundred thousand. McCain blames a portion of the Republican party's faults lie in the way they use social media. Just being on the social media sites does not guarantee anything. You have to pay a particular amount of detail in the message that you want other people to identify you with. Message is the key to success.

The second article describes just how Obama was able to tap into the social networks so successfully. They point out that because Obama was only a junior Senator before running for Presdent, he did not have much of a brand at all. The most important role that social media played in his campaign was that it helped build this brand. Social media allowed for Obama to create a connection that was closer than any other politician before him. The heavy reliance of social media also created a super database of potential voters and supporters of his Presidency. By having an online database of people, the cost of contacting these people is virtually zero dollars. Within the campaign he was able to save hundreds of thousands of donations due to this.

As we gear up towards another Presidential election, I think that it will be interesting to see the angles both parties take when it comes to online media. My guess is that Obama will again reign supreme in the land of no boundaries. I will no doubt be on the lookout to see if the Republican party has learned from their last Presidential race disappointment. If they have learned to use this technology the right way, as opposed to just using it.