By 2010 18 to 29 year olds will outnumber baby boomers and it’s become apparent in this election that our voice does matter.
The catalyst for this posting was an article I read in Fast Company four months ago titled “The Brand Called Obama”. The article was not about Obama as a presidential contender but instead focused on how he embraces social media. Obama has his greatest strength among the young group of 18 to 29 year olds, the same group that us advertises have coveted for ages. So how did he win them over? Easy – he found the best way to reach them, new media, and went directly to them with his “sales pitch”.
The Obama campaign website is extremely robust featuring constant updates, ringtones, videos, photos, etc. Early on, his campaign launched a social networking site giving Obama supporters all the tools they need to blog about issues, set up their own fundraising sites, and organize their own events. The McCain campaign caught on and launched their very own social networking site just last week. A Pew Report recently stated that Obama’s social networking site has 926,000 members compared to the tens of thousands of members for McCain. Is there enough time left for McCain to catch up?
It’s exciting that the 2008 candidates are embracing new media and creating the vehicles for conversation. The question is whether or not this will have an impact on the results of the 2008 election, but I guess we’ll just have to wait until November to find out.
Interested in learning more? There’s a great site that gives a real time view of the candidates in the online space.
(Special thanks to Mickey for inspiring this post.)
Good to see that the canidates are finally going to value our opinions though.
By: Ben Hogan on August 30, 2008
at 10:11 pm
Carrie,
Thanks for the shoutout, and glad that I was able to be a little give you some inspiration!
I did not realize that the Obama site was approaching the 1million user mark, definitely impressive.
What I think will be very interesting to see, will be what happens post election. Regardless of which candidate wins what will happen to these networks that have been created? Plenty of time and money have been put into growing these network, giving users tools and a place to connect with others.. but after the election will all this go away? Will the creators still update?
They have given people a place to have the conversation.. I think it would be shame if they did not encourage it to continue after the election.
Mickey
http://www.mortarandpixel.com/blog/
By: verymickey on August 30, 2008
at 10:21 pm
mickey i think the longevity of these networks depends entirely on our own actions. If we choose to turn out in record numbers finally breaking the low-turnout trend the young vote is known for, than the candidates will finally respect our age group as an important audience. If we fail to turnout once again, than those networks which have generated so much hype amoungst young people will be seen as simply unimportant from the eyes of the candidates. If we fail to turnout in an election such as this, which has energized so many young voters, than the candidates may very well give up on our political involvement once and for all.
By: Ben Hogan on August 30, 2008
at 10:40 pm
Nice post and very timely. I just reviewed a presentation from a very large national non-profit that look at Obama’s online presence and how they could leverage his campaign’s strategies
By: Jeff Katz on August 31, 2008
at 2:30 am
I would argue that it wasn’t the medium that reached the audience, but the message. He has something key that hasn’t existed for many decades of polititions for this demo: relevance.
I might also argue that it is the as much the new characteristics of this demo (in terms of their media savviness, coupled with a “get involved” attitude) that created the Obama engine, as much as the candidate and his staff themselves.
His message was relavent to the market, and they used the tools they love in order to support him.
Or not…. ;P
By: The Rob on September 2, 2008
at 4:01 pm