In the months leading up to the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama embraced social media as a way to galvanize voters from all walks of life. His campaign received major kudos from marketers who felt he was the only candidate who “got” social media. I remember being surprised how quickly the would-be president followed me back when I signed up to follow his feed. But I was disappointed when his tweets stopped coming after he was elected. In fact, I wrote a blog post about it back then.
Of course, many people have criticized President Obama for not being as effective a communicator once he won the election and losing the grassroots support that helped him get into office. His campaign did eventually start tweeting again. And just the other day, they announced he would start writing some of his own tweets, signing them BO.
Thanks to social media, people want and have even come to expect the inside track on the organizations and individuals they support. The main driver behind this shift is the decline of traditional information gatekeepers and the proliferation of “direct-to-consumer” channels. In other words, you don’t have to wait for a newspaper to endorse a political candidate or a television network to air a debate. You can just follow their tweets and ask your questions directly.
One difference between 2008 and 2012 may be the fact that more tweets are actually from the politician him- or herself as opposed to the campaign. There are both rewards and risks associated with this evolution – as Anthony Weiner demonstrated just a few weeks ago.