Social media has become an important tool for political campaigns by allowing them to engage voters inexpensively and in real time. Barack Obama mastered social media in his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, using platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to cultivate grassroots support, fundraise, advertise, and rally voters. Looking forward, social media will continue to evolve how politicians and the public communicate and influence the political process.

1. # vote socialmedia "An examination of the advantages for political campaigns through social media"

2. Introduction Relatively new phenomenon Game changer Now, a norm for active politicians A space to instigate political growth -Pulse -Yowie Social media influence in the future: UP

3. A good social media plan includes: listening platform voter inclusion analytics voter sentiment

4. Why is SM engagement more important than traditional methods? Inexpensive Authentic Real time conversation Reach

5. Shira Schoenberg @shiraschoenberg Boston Globe political correspondent "Obama mastered the multifaceted social media world on a level that even his counterparts cannot contest" "He used Facebook, Twitter and other media platforms to cultivate grassroots organizations, fundraise, advertise and rally support"

6. Edward Boches @edwardboches Klout Score: 57 Chief Innovation Officer; Mullen; Marketer; Blogger "A collective voice for voters" "Real-time qualitative feedback for campaigns" "Track sentiment"

7. Background: PULSE

8. Background: YOWIE "An open town hall meeting platform" Allows hundreds of people to participate Speaker and audience are engaged No limit on time, space or content No spending money on staff or travel

9. Background: FLOOP social polling mobile app gauges sentiment on various "Floops" (questions/topics) opportunity for engagement of general public

10. Tour – “How To” Social polling tools Floop Pulse Interactive video chat Yowie “ The social web is vocal and wants to be heard.” - D. Archibald Smart, CTO at Targeted Victory

11. CTO at Targeted Victory Mitt Romney Measureable & definitive Gauge sentiment Encourage action Two-way communication

12. Graphs Real-time Monitor feedback Social Polling

13. Floop 2008 Presidential debate two-way shared conversation analytics and market research Candidates gain insight “ We need Floop because it puts polling in the hands of the people.” - Co-founders Richard Schultz and Patrick Shields

16. The Pulse Measures buzz Analytics Charts & graphs Sentiment, influence, trends Instagram

17. interactive video chat live questions participation bridges the gap give and take format “ Yowie enables me to have a direct digital dialog with the public and engage in an open Q&A on key issues…no topic is off limits.” - Gary Johnson, U.S. Republican Presidential Candidate Yowie

18. What these tools mean for candidates… Collective voice of voters Real-time feedback Track sentiment by geography Gather insight at little cost

19. CASE STUDY: Barack Obama Barack Obama's Social Presence 2008 Campaign for Change 2012 Organizing For America

20. Barack Obama's Social Presence = influential

21. Twitter - @barack0bama https://twitter.com/#!/BarackObama 2,181 tweets 686,891 following 11,077,937 followers 158,923 listed

22. Tumblr http://barackobama.tumblr.com/ supporters can post stories, photos, or videos allows for engagement

23. Facebook http://www.facebook.com/barackobama 24,032,731 like this 315,522 talking about this

24. YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom?blend=1&ob=4 165 million views

25. 2008 Campaign for Change

26. 2008 Campaign for Change McCain supporters more likely than Obama supporters to be internet users ( 83% vs. 76% ) Obama supporters participated in a wider range of online political activities Use of email and text messaging for political communications

27. 2008 Campaign for Change

28. 2008 Campaign for Change Key Aspect to Campaign = Engagement , Interaction , and Involvement with supporters via social media

29. 2008 Campaign for Change My.BarackObama.com - interaction with supporters spent more than $26 million on internet advertising 83% of Internet users ages 18-29 use social networking sites “ So much of our support [in 2008] came from younger, more wired people.” - David Axelrod, top strategist for the 2012 campaign

30. 2008 Campaign for Change Outcome = social media helped Barack Obama increase interaction and engage with voters to spread his campaign message giving him an advantage in the 2008 presidential election

31. 2012 Organizing for America

32. 2012 Organizing for America maintain connections with supporters and reach out to new ones interact and make supporters/voters involved in the conversation re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee at $5 million in online ad related spending alone

33. 2012 Organizing for America "Tweet for Jobs" Tool

34. 2012 Organizing for America use social media as a gateway to open a two-way dialogue , not a vehicle for pushing out talking points partnered with Facebook and LinkedIn to host interactive events "Greater Together" solicit questions and feedback on a live Twitter feed #greatertogether

35. 2012 Organizing for America How To Use Social Media To Succeed in the 2012 Presidential Campaign sponsor a debate-watching party “ Voting For My Future” - video series "President Obama will need to speak not just to them , but with them ." - Jesse Comart, communications and public affairs consultant at the Glover Park Group (GPG)

36. WHAT'S NEXT: The Future of Political Social Media How social media constantly evolves and changes in the political sphere

37. New Trends National debt debate erupted on Twitter this summer

38. On Friday July 29, 2011, President Obama asked American citiz ens to join the debt debate on Twitter . New Trends

39. I n only 8 hours , the president's message had reached 36 million Twitter users, according to NM incite New Trends

40. New Trends = White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted that he believed "e-mails & tweets helped Congress to act." The people's Twitter influence forced Congress to raise the debt ceiling.

41. Mathew Lira "It's a sea of change from, say, two years ago ... If you're not following it on Twitter, you're out of the loop and behind the curve." "Social web will heal the relationship between the public and their legislative institutions." Matt Lira is currently the Director of New Media for House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor http://twitter.com/#!/MattLira

42. future of facebook .com The Future of Facebook is a 6 part video series exploring the impact social networking technologies are having on our lives

44. New Trends The Future of Facebook and Politics

45. AMERICANS ELECT 2 0 1 2 New Trends The goal of Americans Elect is to nominate a presidential ticket that answers directly to voters - not the political system Americans Elect is already well on the way to putting the first directly-nominated nonpartisan ticket on the 2012 ballot in all 50 states. Over 2, 008, 069 signatures and counting!

46. Conclusion New social media platforms help politicians boost their political campaigns by: New ways to communicate with voters Ex: Twitter, Facebook Rallying support Ex: 24-hour fundraising bomb websites Promoting interactivity Ex. Interactive video blogs Measuring influence Ex: social polling

47. QUESTIONS?