Let’s Talk #2: Social Media and Its Impact on Politics

The Presidential Campaign

@nabilaasad

Outline

• We’ll take one example: Barrack Obama’s Breakthrough with his Digital Campaign Communications in 2012. – His Objectives

– The Statistic

– The Data

– The Facts

– The Findings of Audit Processes (of this campaign)

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• Mobilize supporters

• Engage undecided voters

• Shape the conversation around his re-election

His Objectives

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Which data are needed by Obama’s campaign team to support his objectives?

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The Statistics

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Which data are needed by Obama’s campaign team?

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The Data

• Communication channels • Who listened to them – the distribution and range of audiences • Audiences’ responses – who, what, how, and which post got more

responses • (Hot) topic people were talking about - what voters showed the

most interest in • Number of posts were posted by each party • What kind of socmed contents were posted by both Obama and his

competitor, Romney. “the two camps talk about that issue in distinctly different ways. Romney’s discussion focuses on jobs. Obama’s discussion of the economy is partly philosophical, a discourse on the importance of the middle class and competing visions for the future.”

- PEW RESEARCH CENTER: JOURNALISM & MEDIA STAFF, 2012.

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The Facts

“Obama’s digital content also engendered more response from the public-twice the number of shares, views and comments of his posts.”

“Visitors to Obama’s website are offered opportunities to join 18 different constituency groups, among them African-Americans, women, LGBT, Latinos, veterans/military families or young Americans.” - PEW RESEARCH CENTER: JOURNALISM & MEDIA STAFF, 2012.

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The Action(s) - Obama

• From 2008 go beyond the candidates adding social media channels

• Obama turned to Twitter Ads to own the election conversations at every step of his campaign.

• During every televised presidential debate, Obama created a two-screen experience using Twitter.

• The Obama campaign localized its digital messaging significantly, adding state-by-state content pages filled with local information.

• Obama eliminated a role for the mainstream press.

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Meanwhile, his competitor…

• The Romney website contains a page dedicated to accounts about the candidate from the mainstream news media, albeit only those speaking positively of Romney or negatively of Obama.

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The Finding(s) from Audit Processes

• Obama’s campaign has made far more use of direct digital messaging than Romney’s.

• The campaign is about the economy, but what that means differs depending on to whom one is listening.

• The economy may have dominated both candidates’ digital messaging, but it was not what voters showed the most interest in.

• Neither campaign made much use of the social aspect of social media.

• Campaign websites remain the central hub of digital political messaging.

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New Job: Social Media Auditor

• Examine your social media profiles

– Locate and document all your social media profiles, official and unofficial

– Check for completion of all details on these profiles and for consistency in imagery and message

– Follow up on your goals and compare performance today to performance one and two years ago

• Examine those who do it well

– Find 4 to 8 niche influencers and examine how they manage their brand on social media

– Observe imagery and branding on each of their profiles – Measure key metrics like followers and engagement

• Make an action plan for improvements and goals for your profiles

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Google ID’s Findings for Indonesia 2014 Presidential Campaign

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The Social Media Trend Continues…

The use of social media by public figures. You name it…

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201511251562.html

Source: http://nasional.tempo.co/20@nabilaasad

“The 2016 presidential election in the US is shaping up to be the most social yet, as candidates use Facebook, Twitter and even Snapchat to connect with voters.”

- What Can We Learn From Presidential Candidates on Twitter?, http://adweek.com

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Thank you. @nabilaasad

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