In his book, ‘The Virtual Commnunity,” Rheingold (1993)
talks about how politicians can reach new audiences by appealing to ‘online
communities’ in order to grow support for their political parties. Rheingold
may have anticipated that politicians would continue to use social media
throughout campaigns in the future in his book, but surely he is surprised now
by just how much impact this type of media can have.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are the most utilized social
media platforms by politicians these days. One of the best examples of a
politician who makes the most of social media is Barrack Obama
(http://www.thesocialmediatrainingschool.com)
With over 31.5 million followers on Twitter, over 290 million
YouTube video views and 35 million likes on Facebook, it is clear the amount of
effort Obama puts into utilizing all of these different social media sites. It
could also be said that without this entire social media campaigning, Obama
would not have maintained the followers in order to be elected and re-elected.
In 2008, the year Obama was elected, there was the largestvoter turnout in the US in 50 years. This shows that obviously Obama targeted a
range of different people that would not normally vote and urged them to
support him. He focused on campaigning to a range of people such as gay and
lesbian groups and different ethnic groups, and was able to target these groups
more accurately via online communities.
Social media is imperative for any politician running as a
candidate these days and will continue to prove so in the future. This means
that younger candidates may just have an advantage as not only are they more
likely to have grown up using social media, but they will also appeal to the
younger voters. Candidates also need to incorporate some sort of humour or
entertainment in their campaigns to keep people engaged long enough on social
media sites before they hit refresh on their Facebook feeds or click a
recommended video on YouTube.
Politicians need to adapt fast to this type of
campaigning as the old conventional ways are becoming close to their use by date.
Using social media to publish a political campaign allows the party to connect with their fans and prospective followers personally, answer questions, and update the public of their position within the election. I agree that Barack Obama is the best example of how political campaigns are successful on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
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