How Obama Won the Internet

He is often called The First President of Social Media and his 2008 campaign win has been referred to as The Facebook Election.  Current President Barack Obama was the first candidate in U.S. history to really campaign for presidency online, starting with his 2008 run and continuing with that same method through the 2012 election as well.

It wasn’t just Barack Obama who used social media to campaign; for the first time in American history, all of the 2008 candidates used some type of online platform.  However, Obama overwhelmingly had the support of the younger generation during his 2008 election.  Polls showed that Obama had nearly 70% of the vote of those 25 years of age and under.  Not coincidentally, this same age group was the also most active on social media, particularly Facebook (Dutta & Fraser, 2008).

Obama also had the leverage of Chris Hughes, a 24-year-old Facebook co-founder, on his side.  Hughes used his knowledge of social media and his influence within the internet sphere to lobby additional support for Obama.  Facebook in itself also realized the power it had to engage users in political discussion, and it teamed up with ABC for election coverage, while CNN teamed up with YouTube (Dutta et al, 2008).

According to the Pew Research Center (2009), three-quarters of internet users went online during the 2008 campaign, either to participate in political discussions or to access campaign information and political news.  This marks the first time in American history that over half of the eligible voting population participated online.  During the 2012 election, approximately 10% of campaign donors claimed to donate to the campaigns via mobile phone (Smith & Duggan, 2012), and roughly 20% of voters discussed their political views online (Rainie, 2012).  

Regardless of political party affiliation, voters on both sides depended upon social media and the internet to keep them informed of the political atmosphere and the presidential candidates during both the 2008 and 2012 election. Obama set a prime example in regards to how one can successfully leverage social media to win an election.  This suggests that campaign coverage across social media channels will continue to increase during future elections.

References

Dutta, S., & Fraser, M. (2008, November 19). Barack Obama and the Facebook Election - US News. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2008/11/19/barack-obama-and-the-facebook-election

PBS NewsHour. (2013, January 17). Daily Download: Obama's 2012 Digital Campaign Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0POqVcGZRU

Rainie, L. (2012, November 6). Social Media and Voting | Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/11/06/social-media-and-voting/

Smith, A. (2009, April 15). The Internet’s Role in Campaign 2008 | Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/04/15/the-internets-role-in-campaign-2008/

Smith, A., & Duggan, M. (2012, October 25). Presidential Campaign Donations in the Digital Age | Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/10/25/presidential-campaign-donations-in-the-digital-age/

Is the Internet Killing Communication?

Of the approximate 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, fewer than 5% of those languages exist online, according to scholar Andras Kornai (2013).  Kornia states that the life of a language typically follows a general course of extinction.  The first sign of a native language fading will often occur in the business world, where it’s encouraged and more socially acceptable to speak a common language among clients and business partners rather than one’s potentially less common native tongue.  As a result, younger generations become less likely to adapt to the native language as well, preferring to adopt what’s more widely accepted among the working classes.  Therefore, subsequent younger generations will adopt the common language used by the generation before, thereby allowing the native language to fade from existence altogether.

To linguistics experts, a language isn’t technically extinct until there are no living people who are able to speak it.  However, there are already an estimated 40% of languages endangered currently, according to the very cool Alliance for Linguistic Diversity.  Even some languages that aren’t endangered may have only a few thousand native speakers (Dewey, 2013).  Cultures throughout the world are starting to recognize the threat that digital media may play to their languages and ways of life; as a result, many small groups in various countries have started Digital Language Activism, in which they offer ASL-like challenges to social media users.  Rather than a social media user dumping a bucket of water over his head, he is challenged to create a video in his native tongue and tag someone else to do the same (Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, 2014).

To combat the decline of native language use among various countries, Wikimedia has also created a language incubator of sorts.  This incubator is a “platform where anyone can build up a community in a certain language edition of a Wikimedia project that does not yet have its own subdomain, provided that it is a recognized language” (Wikimedia, 2013).  This is Wikimedia’s attempt at ensuring that all viable languages are accessible on the internet. 

Typically, experts use what is known as the 100 Year Rule as a predictor to determine if a language is at risk of dying out.  That is, they ask the question, “In 100 years, will people still be speaking this language?”  This rule doesn’t necessarily apply to the digital age though, in which our society makes changes in the blink of an eye.  It’s difficult to say where the World Wide Web will be even five or ten years from now, much less 100.  If current trends have taught us anything, it’s that our dependence upon technology and the internet will only become more significant, leaving the possibility for thousands of languages and cultures to become extinct in a relatively short amount of time.

References

Alliance for Linguistic Diversity. (n.d.). Endangered Languages Project - Knowledge sharing. Retrieved from http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/blog/

Dewey, C. (2014, December 4). How the Internet is killing the world’s languages - The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/12/04/how-the-internet-is-killing-the-worlds-languages/

Kornai, A. (2013, October 22). PLOS ONE: Digital Language Death. Retrieved from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0077056

Patel, A. (2014, August 19). A Gathering of Indigenous Language Digital Activism in Oaxaca, Mexico [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV0P3F5VSxc

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Welcome to Wikimedia Incubator! Retrieved August 30, 2015, from https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Incubator:Main_Page

Social Isolation in the Digital Age: Is it Just a Myth?

There have been many questions and comments in recent years surrounding our ability to communicate with one another due to all of the advances in technology.  For many, the argument is that we’ve become a much more isolated society, which is often attributed to our newly-gained dependence on non-verbal platforms, such as texting, social media, and other internet forums (Dewey, 2014).

Studies show that our perceptions of isolation may just be a myth.  In 2009, the Pew Research Center released results of a study that sought to analyze how our use of technology may or may not effect social isolation amongst humans.  The team used regression analysis, a method which allowed them to “examine the relationship between technology use and network size while holding constant other factors such as education, age or gender” (Hampton, Sessions Goulet, Rainie, and & Ja Her, 2009).  For example, the study allowed them to compare two Americans with the same size social network and the same demographics, but with different technological habits (i.e. use of cell phone vs. no use of cell phone).

What the study found was that, while technology wasn’t necessarily responsible for restructuring our social networks, it certainly influenced them by providing a larger and more diverse array of people with whom to communicate on the internet.  Overall, internet and cell phone users were found to have more network connections than those who did not participate in online activities.  Internet and mobile phone users were just as likely, if not more likely, than their non-technologically advanced counterparts to maintain relationships with family, friends, and the local community.  The study found that internet users, particularly bloggers, were also more likely to volunteer within the local community.  Internet users were also 42% more likely than non-internet users to visit parks, plazas, or other public venues (Hampton et al, 2009). 

The study contends that, if anything, the internet is more likely to encourage engagement with one another, both on and offline, particularly since we can now access the internet just about anywhere.  It widens our network, not just locally, but globally as well.  Social media allows us to keep abreast of what’s happening in our local communities and encourages participation.  It also allows us to build connections with those of differing backgrounds who we may not otherwise reach out to. 

These findings aren’t true for everyone.  Some people in the study did report feeling less isolated pre-technology.  These findings though may have more to do with how one does or does not use technology.  Someone in today’s world who doesn’t have a solid understanding of how technology works may feel as though he is in a world of his own, and may revert back to depending solely upon face-to-face and snail mail communication forms.  At the same time, it can easily be argued that technology, in the ways described above, can widen online communities, promote engagement and participation, and make communication easier.

References

Dewey, C. (2014, March 12). 36 ways the Web has changed us - The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style-blog/wp/2014/03/12/36-ways-the-web-has-changed-us/

Hampton, K., Sessions Goulet, L., Rainie, L., & Ja Her, E. (2009, November 4). Social Isolation and New Technology | Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/11/04/social-isolation-and-new-technology/

Technology and Communications

In the past, a Communications professional needed advanced writing skills to get a company’s message to the masses.  This is still a requirement today; however, knowing how to effectively compose a message on email, instant message, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, WordPress, Blogger, Flickr, Snapchat, and other social platforms becomes imperative if a company would like to reach its audience.  Knowing how to use a mobile phone, a tablet, and a laptop, even just to Skype with colleagues, has become a necessity.  Knowing the mechanics of creating, editing, and posting videos and photographs, creating mashups, and podcasts plays an essential role in the life of a communications professional. 

The World Wide Web in general has changed communication.  It allows us to rapidly communicate with others across the globe via a broadband network.  For the price of a monthly internet subscription, we can now speak with people all over the world via email, instant message, various face-timing services like Skype, and social media, which allows us to share our lives over status updates and pictures.  Business depend on such types of communication as well as a means to quickly and conveniently communicate with colleagues and employees both remotely and in-house.  According to researchers, at least 60% of our daily communication is non-verbal, which signifies how much we depend on our technologies to communicate (McDermott, 2013).
 

A recent study released by World Wide Learn states that over 67% of employers will be seeking candidates who possess technical aptitude in 2015 (Johnson, 2015).  A quick search on various job boards for communication professionals shows that employers often are searching for a candidate who is literate in various Adobe products, basic HTML, some minor knowledge of various computer languages, and possesses the ability to create customized content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  With SEO usually comes the ability to track and measure analytics.  Many of these skills used to be left to the talents of IT professionals, but has now crossed over into the world of communications.  Being technologically literate can largely assist communications professionals in today’s corporate world. 

It's predicted that, by 2025, the Internet of Things will be thriving and technology will be more advanced and even more prevalent than it is today (Anderson & Rainie, 2014).  Experts predict that our affinity for machine-to-machine (M2M) interaction will continue to grow, and similar pieces of technology will advance in terms of being able to communicate with one another.  Our roads will be built with sensors and will be able to speak to our cards, thus making smart roads and smart cars Burrus, 2014).  Additionally, experts predict that within ten years, humans will be much more likely to be wearing technology.  Everything in our lives will be "smart" (Burrus, 2014).  As we move more in the direction of the Internet of Things, the ways in which we communicate with one another will only continue to evolve and change.

References

Anderson, J., & Rainie, L. (2014, May 14). Internet of Things | Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/05/14/internet-of-things/

Burrus, D. (2014, December). The Internet of Things Is Far Bigger Than Anyone Realizes | WIRED. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/the-internet-of-things-bigger/

FW: Thinking. (2015, February 11). How the Internet of Things Will Change the World[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhrB5ZZXnjM

Johnson, H. (2015, January 10). Employers Reveal 8 Must-Have Skills for 2015. Retrieved from http://www.worldwidelearn.com/education-articles/employers-reveal-8-must-have-skills-for-2015.html

McDermott, D. (2013, April 25). Two Sides of How Technology Affects Communication:. Retrieved from http://thewarrioronline.com/two-sides-of-how-technology-affects-communication/

Permissionless Innovation

It’s not enough to be able to tell a story.  In today’s world, creativity is critical for corporations to remain relevant.  Businesses are constantly competing both for time and against time to find the most innovative and low-cost ways to get their products and services to their target audiences.  It’s imperative for Communications professionals to know the overall business strategy of a company and how to communicate that to the outside world, as well as how to recognize an ends to the means of the same goal.  Financial literacy has now become an important factor for the Communications professional.

Permissionless innovation, or the freedom to explore new technologies or businesses without seeking prior approval, is one way that technology has changed communications (Chesbrough & Van Alstyne, 2015).  Joi Ito, head of MIT Media Lab, breaks down innovation in terms of Before Internet (BI) and afterwards.  Before the internet, Ito explains, humanity was more futuristic.  Society was constantly thinking of ways to predict the future and plan accordingly.  In present day, Ito explains, we need to be more now-ists, due to the speed and complexity of the internet.  The internet provides us with the opportunity to try new and creative endeavors, to communicate, and to distribute at essentially no cost.  Ito encourages us to recognize trends, to recognize what people and society needs, and to just go for it.  Create and innovate. This is the future.  

Through permissionless innovation, we are encouraged to embrace an entrepreneurial attitude and  not be afraid to take risks with new technologies.  It opens up a world of communications for humans, where we can experiment with social media, blogging, and other forms of self-publishing.  Others may use permissionless innovation to write HTML, or a software program, or even download a client database.  Our creativity is not being regulated.  It's opened the world up to so many possibilities in what we create and the way in which we communicate.  As author Adam Thierer (2014) states, "Permissionless innovation is about the creativity of the human mind to run wild in its inherent curiosity and inventiveness. In a word, permissionless innovation is about freedom".

References

Chesbrough, H., & Van Alstyne, M. (2015). Permissionless Innovation | August 2015 | Communications of the ACM. Retrieved from http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/8/189837-permissionless-innovation/abstract

Thierer, A. (2014). Permissionless innovation: The continuing case for comprehensive technological freedom. Retrieved from http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/Permissionless.Innovation.web_.pdf

The Art of Storytelling

It seems almost too obvious, but one of the most important skills that a communications professional can have is the ability to communicate.  The art of communication doesn’t just include verbal expression and spewing forth generic vernacular.  Communication includes the ability to tell stories, to captivate, and to engage an audience in a compelling manner.  Storytelling isn't new; however, in today’s world, the ability to tell stories through the use of a variety of social platforms and digital tools becomes a necessity in order for a company's brand to gain visibility.

Every effective story contains specific components that are in place to appeal to consumers.  Often, this includes typically beginning a story or presentation with a question, activity, or fascinating fact that will garner the audience's attention.  Knowing one's audience is imperative for storytelling, as well as knowing which medium is most appropriate for delivering the story.  Having a clear understanding as to why the story is being told is beneficial as well.  Finally, creating a call to action, something that will prompt one's audience to either share one's story, or to change a behavior, support an organization, etcetera (Ashoka Changemakers, 2013).

The International Association of Business Communicators cautions though that not all content equals a story.  It's not always enough to have a content strategy or an excessively busy editorial calendar just for the sake of a brand presence or loyalty.  It will assist a brand in gaining visibility in search engine rankings, but this is not the same as taking an audience on a journey through the art of storytelling (Di Somma, 2015).
 

In a business role, communication includes knowing how to present information, products or services in such a way in which a consumer’s interest is piqued.  Storytelling doesn't necessarily tell the story of a business; it tells the story of consumers.  An effective storyteller will understand his audience, what his audience is seeking, and what his audience needs.  Communication includes listening to what one’s market trends and needs are, and delivering.  Communications includes the ability to converse with one’s consumer base, to elicit and encourage consumer feedback, as well as to respond to consumer complaints.  In the past, consumers didn't have a voice, and companies held much more power; however, social media now allows for the back-and-forth communication between corporations and consumers, which allows for the building of trust and the forging of relationships.  After all, what is a successful business without consumer support?

In a digital world, successful companies need to learn how to use digital technology to connect with audiences.  Often, this is done by using digital storytelling to invoke some kind of emotion within an audience, rather it be through a PowerPoint presentation, a YouTube video, a Facebook post, or traditional advertising.  An effective story will emotionally appeal to it's audience.  A great example
of a company excelling at digital storytelling is Subaru.  In 2013, Subaru released a video titled, "Cut the Cord", in which a father waited for the bus with his young daughter for her first day of school, and then followed said bus to ensure that his daughter would be okay.  Subaru loves to use commercials that depict common life stages as a means to appeal to consumers and to provide us with a human experience.  The "Cut the Cord" commercial tugged at the heart strings of many Americans.  This type of digital storytelling resulted in Subaru seeing it's highest U.S. sales ever just shortly after the commercial aired (Nudd, 2013).   

References

Ashoka Changemakers. (2013). A changemaker’s eight-step guide to storytelling: How to engage heads, hearts and hands to drive change. Retrieved from http://www.changemakers.com/sites/default/files/a_changemakers_guide_to_storytelling_12_10_13.pdf

Di Somma, M. (2015, August 5). Telling Stories that Connect - Communication World. Retrieved from http://cw.iabc.com/2015/08/05/telling-stories-that-connect/

Nudd, T. (2013, April 8). How Subaru Fell in Love and Never Looked Back | Adweek. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-subaru-fell-love-and-never-looked-back-148475

Quantrell Auto Group. (2013, February 14). Quantrell Subaru SBON12315H CUT THE CORD [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leV8VodhK8o

Smith, J. (2013, March 18). Revealed! The Best 7 Examples of Digital Storytelling | Derek Smith. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derek-smith/revealed-the-best-7-examp_b_2902296.html