WordSmith › President Obama, Republican Candidates Go Social For 2012
“Pithy PRognostications from a recovering journalist …”
Words of the Day
“The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that is untrue.” – Edward R. Murrow, famed American Journalist
Twitter-In-Chief
Call them the Digital Candidates. President Barack Obama – and his Republican presidential counterparts – are going social to secure the White House in 2012.
Obama version 1.0 broke new ground in 2008 using e-mail, texts messages, Twitter and Facebook to reach voters. Obama version 2.0 is taking his Web campaign to new levels, harnessing the expansive roles that social media and the Internet are playing in voters’ lives.
Obama is asking supporters to use Facebook to declare “I’m In!” for his re-election campaign and is using Twitter to personally blast messages to his nine million followers.
He’s also taking a more active role on Twitter, 140 characters at a time. Obama’s campaign said in a posting on its website recently that Obama will tweet regularly from the popular social media service and his personal tweets will be signed “-BO.” The campaign said it will now manage both Obama’s Twitter account and Facebook page.
Obama tweeted personally, welcoming followers to “a new @BarackObama. From now on, #Obama2012 staff will manage this account; tweets from the President will be signed “-BO.”
The campaign said on its website that the changes “will give us new opportunities to make the most of these channels, using them not only to report what the president is doing every day but to connect to the millions of supporters who will be driving this campaign.”
Obama has nearly 9 million followers on Twitter, making him the third most-followed account among Twitter users, according to Twitter statistics website twittercounter.com. Obama trails only entertainers Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber in followers.
Digital media experts said the changes will give the account more authenticity and could lead to the president interacting with followers, using the account to seek contributions or asking them to volunteer for his campaign.
The Republican presidential field also has embraced social media, turning to Twitter and Facebook for videos, messages and online discussions.
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