The Social Media ElectionAnalysis of the 2008 Barack Obama Campaign

By: Sara Fleming

Faces Behind the Campaign

Thomas Gensemer

•Worked on the Howard Dean presidential campaign in 2004.

•He took the staff of the Dean campaign and created Blue State Digital.

•Blue State Digital helped to create BarackObama.com

•Engage the visitor before asking them for money. Theory helped Obama campaign raise $600 million dollars.

Faces Behind the CampaignMeredith Segal

•Inspired by Senator Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention.

•Created Facebook group in 2006: Students for Obama.

•Students for Obama grew to 62,000 members by February 2007.

•Named official student organization of the Obama campaign.

Faces Behind the CampaignChris Hughes

•One of the founders of Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg while he was a student at Harvard.

•Left Facebook in 2007 to help Obama with his campaign.

•“We were finally living in a culture where people get what networks are and what technology can do to connect people.”

•Launched BarackOmaha.com in February 2007 and the site almost crashed because of the traffic.

BarackObama.com

BarackOmaha.com

•Launched in February 2007 after Obama announced his candidacy.

•The site prompted visitors to create an account with an email address.

•Over three million people created accounts on the site throughout the campaign.

•Users raised $35 million dollars with tools provided by MyBO.com

iPhone App•Rolled out iPhone app in October of 2008.

•Between launch date and the November election day 95,000 supporters installed the app and made 41,075 calls.

•The app created a mobile office for supporters in the field

Social Network Sites

“Modern communications technology is transforming the landscape of political campaigns. “ - C. Panagopoulos

Bibliography:

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2. 3. Harfoush, Rahaf. Yes We Did. Berkley: New Riders, 2009. Print.4. McGirt, Ellen. “How Chris Hughes Helped Launch Facebook and the Barack

Obama Campaign”. http://consommacteurs.blogs.com. Web. July 30, 2014.5. 6. Panagopoulos, Costas, et al. Politicking Online: The Transformation of Election

Campaign Communications. Piscataway: Rutgers University Press, 2009. Print.7. 8. Quily, Pete. “Barack Obama Vs. John McCain Social Media and Search Engine

Scorecard”. http://adultaddstrengths.com/2008/11/05/obama-vs-mccain-social-media/. Web. July 30, 2014.

9. Springer, Paul and Mel Carlson. Pioneers of Digital: Success stories from leaders in

advertising, marketing, search and social media. Philadelphia: Kogan Page, 2012. eBook.