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/