Facebook: a succesful political campaign

March 17, 2009 erikawase
Tags: campaign, Facebook, Obama, politics

With the new tools of Web 2.0, Facebook was created. Facebook is a social networking website that keeps people all over the world interacting with one another. Facebook has recently also been joined by politicians who want to gain supporters for their campaign. Since almost everyone has joined the Facebook community, it only makes sense that bringing ones message to fb would be extremely helpful. 2008 campaign has proved how successful fb could make a politician be.

For example, with the 2008 campaign, President Obama hired the cofounder of fb himself, Chris Hughes, to create and maintain his online campaign. The fact that Obama was able to get the actual founder of fb to do this shows how strong his campaign was going to be. Soon after Obama joined fb, he received 2.2 million friend requests compared to McCain who only had about half a million. The reason for this major difference in friend requests was because Obama was constantly updating and was known for doing so. Obama also had 500 fb groups dedicated to his campaign.

Obama was proven to win this election because of his amicability and how he pertained to younger America. A lot of his tactics was successful because of fb.

According to (http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/nov08/small.pdf), Facebook is a successful way to carry out a campaign because of the following reasons:

1.     Facebook increases exposure at a low cost or even no cost

2.     This exposure is unmediated by the press

3.     Provides access to the millennial generation (people born between 1980-present)

4.     Since fb requires users to request to be a friend or supporter of the campaign, a ready-made database is created allowing campaign to raise contributions and recruit volunteers online.

5.     Facebook is interactive and can allow communication between voters and the campaign.

In conclusion, Facebook is a great tool to carry out a campaign because it allows you to connect to your supporters on a much personal level. Your supporters can learn more about you through your pictures, videos, information, posts, and statuses as well as interact with you digitally. The groups that could be formed on Facebook also lets the politician know the effects on his campaign and make changes to what is unlikable. It’s a great way of two-way communication between a politician and the average individual and can help you win the votes.

Entry Filed under: Journalism 2.0

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