Social Media And Politics (12/1/08)

Social Media and Politics Omar Ha-Redeye AAS, BHA(Hons.), CNMT, RT(N)(ARRT), J.D. Candidate Schulich School of Business Dec.1, 2008

Who Here Uses Social Media?
MySpace ( www.myspace.com)
Flickr ( www.flickr.com)
Digg (www.digg.com)
Delicious (del.icio.us)
LinkedIn ( www.linkedin.com)
Wikipedia (wikipedia.com)
Facebook ( facebook.com)
YouTube ( www.youtube.com)
Twitter ( www.twitter.com)
Blogs

Internet Users Around the World Source: Wikipedia (Image:Internet users en 2007.PNG)

Waiting for the Watershed
Television has been most powerful media to date
Research by Infoscape Research Lab at Ryerson University (2007)
Very small online audience
political videos, blogs and discussion groups
Influential group, but not representative of public
Waiting for the watershed moment

Blogging in Malaysia Can Get You Elected
Jeff Ooi, Malasian IT consultant, blogger, elected in 2008
Award winning, considered most influential blog in Malaysia
anti-government, targeted for libel suit
Concerns of indirect censorship
Calls for blogger registration
Still acknowledged need for traditional methods
Political parties advertise on blogs

Obamania Strikes
Hired well-known tech gurus
Chris Hughes (24), one of Facebook’s founders
Highly effective branding campaign
Messaging more important than message
Regular emails and messages
relationship building

Tracking Your Vote
Voters urged to report intimidation or irregularities
Concerns due to last two Presidential elections

A Victory for Social Media?
“ The first social media election”
Last US election (2004), most tools just emerging
YouTube just launched
Peer-to-peer content key for voter turnout
But not as high as expected
122,294,978 in 2004 compared to est.122,842,626 (NY Times)
Different voters came out

Voter Turnout VEP = Voting Eligible Population VAP = Voting Age Population (Unites States Election Project, http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm)

Lowest Turnout in Canada. Ever.
2008 est. 58% to 59.1% .
breaks the all-time record low of 61% in 2004.
excludes 1898 referendum on prohibition of alcohol, 44.6%
Concern this is not a “life-cycle” effect
lifetime of self-imposed disenfranchisement

Use by Political Parties in Canada
Official Party content only
Supplemented by candidate sites/accounts
May or may not adhere to Party templates/ guidelines
Garth Turner caucus suspension (2006)
Tories Liberals NDP Green Party Bloc Québécois Website X X X X X Facebook X X X Flickr X X X Twitter Account (English) X X X X X Twitter Account (French) X X X X MySpace X X YouTube Channel X X X Digg Account X Friend Feed X X Blog X Other X

Citizen Blogger Alliances
Blogging Tories (www.bloggingtories.ca/)
300 blogs, avg. 3,000 readers/day
Gomery Inquiry, leaked to American blogger, publication ban lifted
Liblogs (www.liblogs.ca/)
Highly influential during Liberal Leadership
Blogging Dippers (bloggingdippers.org/join.php) Now: (http://www.newdemocratsonline.ca/)
Progressive Bloggers (www.progressivebloggers.ca/)
Green Bloggers – Dead (http://www.green-bloggers.com/)

Duplicating Obama’s Success
Opted out of public funding
First candidate to do so since post-Watergate laws in 70’s
Led to largest political fundraising ever
The $5 philanthropist
Raised $650 million, plus DNC funds
Social media essential for fundraising
Allowed him to out-advertise McCain
primarily on television; still primary media

Obama’s Social Media
Tapped into existing support communities
Requested control of largest Facebook group
Provided scoops to supporters
Text message on Biden choice before the press conference
Created value to users
Dominated social media outlets
Twitter

Twitter

Maintain the Relationship
Social media is an ongoing relationship
Ignore your supporters at your own expense
Post-election content that should have been posted
New website, change.gov
Weekly addresses on YouTube

YouTube Becoming Bigger than TV
NBC: “YouTube built on our ripped off content”
YouTube views have exceeded television viewership in the past
Broadcasters have fought back, enforcing copyright
Sarah Palin sketches on SNL
NBC.com: 2,304,539 views (according to NBC)
YouTube: 2,038,058 views (according to TubeMogul )

Handling Copyright Issues
McCain complained about YouTube yanking campaign videos too quickly
Refused to give special privileges
2005 helped vote in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Notice-and-takedown (US) vs. Notice-and-notice (Can)
Amendment to the Copyright Act
Minister Jim Prentice violated song copyright in a YouTube video
Inconsistent messages?

Differences in Canada
Largely a publicly-financed system
Canadians finance federal political parties in three different ways:
tax deductions for donations to parties; 75% amount donated
direct refunds of some campaign expenses for candidates receiving over 10% of the vote
per-vote subsidy of presently $1.95 per vote
Proposal to reduce this amount in upcoming budget led to non-confidence crisis
"cap and gap" - upper limit on spending/ electorate

Traditional PR Tactics Still Apply
Important for marketers to continue being open, transparent
Palin Wikipedia entry “scrubbed” just before launched as candidate
30 favourable changes to her bio
Forecasted her selection
Simultaneous changes by same user to McCain, with footnotes
Expect the bad comments with the good

Has the Watershed Moment Arrived?
Maybe
Social media has become indispensible as political tool
Primarily fundraising and organization
Two things are certain:
Social media will increase in importance in the future
Politicians cannot ignore the impact of social media
Traditional media and related tactics still dominate

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Social Media And Politics (12/1/08)

by Omar Ha-Redeye on Dec 02, 2008

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Social Media And Politics (12/1/08) — Presentation Transcript