This presentation gives an in-depth analysis of Barack Obama's Digital Media Campaign for 2012 Elections called Organizing For America (OFA) 2.0

1. BARACK OBAMA:
ORGANIZING FOR
AMERICA 2.0
Anand Gupta
Abhishek Bhowmik
Arjun Parekh
Krithika Aravindan
Rohan Bharaj
Miral Shah
Syed Mujtaba
Naren Shetty
Varun Shivani

2. Social Media in Business
Source: Edelman 2009
“Obama (and Howard Dean before him) weren’t successful because
they understood computers, they were successful because they
understood how to make technology harness the passion of their
supporters”
- Republican Strategist Mark McKinnon

3. Social Media in Business
Organizing for America Campaign 2008
“There’s nothing more
valuable than a human being
talking to another human
being. Nothing.”
- David Plouffe, Campaign
Manager.
New Media Goals

4. Social Media in Business
OBAMACAMPAIGN2008
Bythenumbers
$500,000,000 raised online. $156,000,000 raised offline.
3 million online donors contributed 6.5 million times
365 Electoral Votes. 69,456,97 Popular Votes.
5 million “friends” on 15 social networking sites
3 million on Facebook alone
13 million email list
3 million signed up to receive between 5 to 20 SMS per month
35,000 volunteer groups held 200,000 offline events
8.5 million monthly visitors to MyBarackObama.com at peak
2 million profiles with 400,000 blog posts
70,000 fund-raising hubs raised $30,000,000
2,000 official YouTube videos watched 80,000,000
times
442,000 user-generated videos on YouTube
Source: Edelman 2009

5. Social Media in Business
Democratic Party Goal: Get Obama elected President
CAMPAIGN 2008
OFA Goal: Get people to get other people to
Sign-up Volunteers
Register Voters
Raise funds
Get out the vote
“All of our goals and metrics were derivative of the larger campaign
goals. You could track everything we did back to dollars or more
volunteers.”
- Joe Rospars

6. Social Media in Business
Goal KPI Metric
Sign-up Volunteers BarackObama.com Registrations
Active Volunteers by State
% website visitors
Number registered and activity
level on MyBo site
Register Voters Volunteer-team performance against
targets
Email-ids gathered
Number of events organized
Email-ids from events and list
conversions
Raise Funds Website, email and offline donations Number of 1st
time/repeat
website visitor donations
Ave Contribution/donor
Email campaign yield
Get out the Vote Number, frequency, location of offline
events
User generated content and engagement
on Social Media
Attendance at events
Number of Voter registrations
For the duration of the campaign
Obama Campaign 2008:
S. M. A. R. T. Goals*, Results focused, Data Driven
* Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Timely

7. Social Media in Business
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008
Iterate: Measure, Analyze, Test, Improve
Website Email Signup Donate
Cost
Per
Click
Sign-
Up
Rate
$
Per
Recipient
$ per pageview
Website Donate
Cost
Per
Click
Sign-
Up
Rate
$
Per
Recipient
$ per pageview
Email Signup
Define
Quantifiable
Success
Metrics
Find and Fix
Weak Links
Source: Dan Siroker

8. Social Media in Business
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008
Multivariate Testing
Using Google Website Optimizer
SIGN UP LEARN MORE
JOIN US NOW SIGN UP NOW
Source: Dan Siroker

9. Social Media in Business
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008
“New Media” Sponsorship from the Top
New Media reported directly
to David Plouffe
Team of 81 paid staff and
89 volunteers
Professionals
Film-makers
Writers
Data Analysts
Developers
Industry Experts
Joe Rospars
Chris Hughes
Michael Slaby
Kevin Malover
Source: Dan Siroker
Barack Obama
David Plouffe
Communications New Media
Paid Media Marketing
Field Email
Policy Blog
Operations Video
Correspondence Design
Finance Analytics
Organizing

10. Social Media in Business
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008
Organizational Structure
Campaign
HQ Staff
Campaign
HQ Staff
Regional
HQ Staff
Regional
HQ Staff
Volunteer
Teams
Voluntee
r Teams
Volunteer
Teams
Volunteer
Teams
Volunteer
Teams

11. Social Media in Business
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008
Volunteers and Grass-roots Movement
Standard team structure, replicable everywhere
Training was mandatory, for team members and
neighbourhood volunteers they organized
Teams held accountable to meet clearly set goals
for vote-getting and voter-contact
Teams were well informed about campaign goals,
strategy, with plenty of context for their work
Motivation, passion and morale were high due to a
culture of inclusion in campaign planning and
communications
Volunteers were trusted to deliver the message
accurately to local constituents and the press alike

12. Social Media in Business
Positioning Strategy
A campaign that brings about:
•A systematic change
•Overhaul of ‘politics as usual’ mentality
•And turns the page on the politics chapter
“YES, WE CAN” campaign slogan along with technology
empowerment.

13. Social Media in Businessmala.sarat.chandra@gmail.com
A Holistic, Coordinated “New Media” Strategy
Content that stimulates Conversations that build Communities that engage
People-focused Authentic Data-driven
Disciplined Transparent Nimble
Engaging Customizable Optimized
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008

14. Social Media in Business
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008
Content Strategy
MyBO website serving as a personal content hub for supporters
 Create a personal web page
 Host events that were searchable, send out invitations
 Upload photos and videos, write a personal blog
 Access databases of phone numbers of people to call
 Downloadable signs, posters, literature and guidelines
VoteforChange.com
Easy to find, SEO optimized for organic and paid searches
Well written Content that is consistent Online and Offline
Easy access, permission to customize, no copyright issues
Active Video Campaign
Respond quickly to negative publicity from the opposition
Mimic tag words to increase chances of finding the response
alongside the original critique.

15. Social Media in Business
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008
Conversation Strategy
“Dinner with Barack”
Comments enabled on all online channels
Be the First to Know: V.P. Announcement via SMS
Tremendous buzz from bloggers and mainstream media
House Parties and Event Sign-Ups
Create authentic experiences with Email
Rallying cry “supporters like you” with calls to action
Nurture one-on-one relationships with online supporters
Videos and Streaming Videos
Local Real-World Stories
Exclusive “One-on-One” Reports to campaign supporters
Blogging
Widespread online promotions including Twitter updates

16. Social Media in Business
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008
Tiers of Engagement
Provide a Menu of Options for Prospective Supporters to choose from
Source: Edelman

17. Social Media in Business
OBAMA CAMPAIGN 2008
Communities Strategy
Establish presence on popular social networking sites
Embrace Facebook Community
One Million Strong for Obama
I Endorse Barack Obama – and I’m telling my friends!
One Click for Barack Obama
I have more Foreign Policy Experience than Sarah Palin
Design MyBo website with familiar tools from other SN sites
Official Barack Obama YouTube Channel
In-game advertising on Xbox LIVE to reach 18-34 year-olds

18. V/S

19. Social Media in Business
THE TURNING POINT

20. Social Media in Business
ROLE OF MyBO

21. V/S

22. Social Media in Business
ROLE OF MyBO

23. Social Media in Business

24. Social Media in Business
Obama Campaign 2008 Media Spend
Media Spend $

25. Social Media in Business
OFA’s Achievements
• 13 million e-mail addresses
• 4 million contributors
• > 2 million user accounts on MyBO
• 2 million active volunteers
• 2,00,000 planned offline events
• 35,000 groups formed
• 4,00,000 blog posts
• $30 million raised on 70,000 personal fundraising pages
• 62% of eligible voters voted in 2008 election
• More number of Latino, African-American and Young Voters

26. Social Media in Business
Why did Obama want to convert OFA to
OFA 2.0?
• To mobilize communities to place pressure on key legislators to
support the president’s political agenda
• To maintain an organizational structure to support future elections
• To stimulate civic engagements and keep open lines of
communication between the public and the Oval Office

27. Social Media in Business
Do you think OFA 2.0 is a successful
proposition?
YES
It will support Obama administration’s legislative agenda, especially
‘Obamacare’
It will act as a ‘Permanent campaign’ and will help other Democrats
contesting in 2010 mid-term elections
It will keep alive and even strengthen, Obama’s grass-roots network
and voter and contributor databases, to be ready for the president’s
reelection campaign in 2012