The document discusses how social media, particularly Twitter, was used during several political campaigns and elections, including: - The 2010 Australian federal election, where over 400,000 tweets focused more on political leaders than issues. - Barack Obama's highly successful 2008 US presidential campaign, which leveraged Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to engage voters and promote his message and brand. - The contrast between Obama and McCain's social media strategies and results in the 2008 US election. - The continued growth of Obama's social media support compared to Mitt Romney's in the 2012 US election. The conclusion advocates that modern political campaigns should leverage social media to communicate their messages to target audiences while maintaining traditional campaign techniques

1. #AUSVOTES
HOW TWITTER COVERED
THE 2010 AUSTRALIAN
FEDERAL ELECTION
CATHERINE ALEXANDER
Z3366676

2. Connecting people
Share views
Publicly engage in a discussion

3. Methods and Results
• #, @ and RTs
• Over 400,000 tweets
• More focus on the political leaders rather
than the issues
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=tpN7VCzDTdg&feature=related
(4.44)

4. Continued
• 50% of tweets consisted of @ replies or
manual RTs
• Leaders did not take full advantage of the
communication opportunity
• More a platform for discussion

5. Obama 2008 Campaign
“The Facebook Campaign”
1. Message
2. Target Audience
46% of Americans used the web for news about the campaign
3. Connect
In 2008 Obama became the most followed person on Twitter (Duncan, 2008)
4. Nurture
Each social network site centered around involvement and participation
5. Ask for the Vote

6. Obama vs. McCain (Metzgar and
Maruggi 2009)
Obama McCain
2,379,102 620,359
112,474 4,603
18 million 2 million
http://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsV2O4fCgjk

7. 2012 US Campaign (Dailey,
2012)
Obama Romney
FB Likes +1 million +600,000
Re-Tweets +150,000 +8,000
YouTube +830,000 +390,000

8. Conclusion
Campaigns should be leveraging social media to
communicate their messages with the target
audience but also keep the traditional
campaign techniques.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKbziodzimo

9. Activity
• Split the room into four groups: Journalists, general public, Jane Jones and John
Smith.
• We want you to react the way your group would do so in the following situation,
using the Twitter format of 140. Add #MDIA5003 and @reply or re-Tweet at least
one other Tweet made by someone else.
• Pretend it’s the lead up to a federal election in our fictional country “land”, it’s John
Smith up against Jane Jones once again. During the public debate John Smith
swears. Not in a derogatory way towards anyone in particular, he simply says the
F-word. He is talking about his views on the National Broadband Network, and how
they should be scrapped to pay aid to those affected by the Northern state floods (a
statement he actually made in February 2011).

10. References
• Bruns, A. and Burgess, J. 2011. How Twitter covered the 2010 Australian federal election.
Communication, politics and culture, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 37-56.
• Dailey, K. 2012. Romney v Obama on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, BBC News Magazine,
August 15.
• Duncan, T. 2008. Obama08 leveraged Twitter to drive traffic to their website and help win an
election, Part 1-Obama08 Twitter Marketing strategy. Obama 2.0 Marketing, November 8.
• Fraser, M. And Dutta, S. 2008. Obama’s win means future elections must be fought online.
The Guardian, Nov 7.
• Metzgar, E. And Maruggi, A. 2009. Social media and the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
Journal of new communications research, Vol. 4, Issue. 1.
• Miller, C. C. 2008. How Obama’s internet campaign changed politics. The New York
Times, Nov 7.
• The Dragonfly Effect, How Obama won with social media.
http://www.dragonflyeffect.com/blog/dragonfly-in-action/case-studies/the-obama-
campaign/