Did Social Media Play a Role in Obama’s Victory?
? Daniel Burrus
Technology Futurist Keynote Speaker, Business Strategist and Disruptive Innovation Expert
When President Obama won his first election four years ago, it was widely reported that he used social media (especially Facebook) to help gain the momentum and the votes he needed to win. From that point on, it should have been a given that all future political candidates put full utilization of social media high on their list of strategic tools as they run their campaigns.
Back in January, I wrote an article talking about the fact that social media has grown in both size and influence since the last presidential election, and there are now many powerful social media tools available to candidates. Therefore, having an integrated approach that leverages multiple sites, with a special focus on the biggest players including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, would provide a very important strategic advantage.
Now that we all know that President Obama has won re-election with a decisive victory, let’s look at how each candidate used social media and see if there are any differences.
As of election night, President Obama had 32 million Facebook fans, 21 million Twitter followers, and 259,685 YouTube views.
On the other hand, Mitt Romney had 12 million Facebook fans, 1.7 million Twitter followers, and only 29,172 YouTube views.
Clearly the Obama team knew the importance of social media as a tool and did a much better job of using it to create both influence and action.
Some might say that Mitt Romney didn’t have the four years President Obama had to build a social media following. But if you look at how fast a following can be built, especially by people who get prime media attention, it’s clear that time is not a big factor. And when you look at the advertising budgets both candidates had, money clearly was not an issue.
The biggest problem for Mitt Romney and his team was not making an integrated social media strategy a strategic priority. If it had been a priority, the election may have ended very differently.
Did social media make a difference in the outcome of the election? When you have a close race, everything matters. So with that in mind, I would answer yes.
Please share your thoughts.
For more info visit www.Burrus.com.
Teacher Assistant
12 年I also agree that social media played a key role but, I can't help but think that Romney attracted a demographic not really exposed to social media, like my elderly neighbors.
Formatrice en anglais passionnée :)
12 年I think the Obama campaign is majorly built on image and influence. They like to send the idea they're the perfect family, very supportive and that can can achieve all they want thanks to that, they are humane. And his is something Romney didn't use. I greatly agree with this article !
Professional in Transition
12 年I believe the use of social media by the #Chattanooga Times Free Press to promote the candidates, their stance on issues and most of all the times and locations of our voting polls resulted in record highs for voting in our city. I believe the social media based discussions also contributed to the surge in real time political discussions I overheard and participated in over the past year.
Technology Futurist Keynote Speaker, Business Strategist and Disruptive Innovation Expert
12 年Thank you all for sharing your thoughts! We seem to agree that social media does play an important role in winning elections. There is a difference between informing (an Information Age strategy) and communicating (a Communication Age strategy) and it takes a combination of the two to inform, engage and influence.
Synergy Commercial Director, Department for Work and Pensions
12 年I do agree, social media did play a role in the campaign and Obams's campaign team were prepared to utilise social media as they needed to. I am not sure if social media is a necessary means of influencing a voter's view. If one cannot already from the news, the papers, TV and wider internet what's really going on in the political landscape, and has not already got democratic or whatevery hue political convictions, why shoudl Facebook, Twitter and the lot make a difference? This comes from someone who is a great sceptic of social media, obviously... What do you think the future would be like without these sites for example? Thanks for opportunity to comment.