Hello MySpace, My Old Friend.

Okay, so MySpace was “like totally middle school” for many of us. It was our first blast into the social networking universe. However, millions upon millions of people still use MySpace religiously. And MySpace gave these people an answer when it came to the 2008 election.

For the election they set up the Decision ’08 campaign, sponsored by NBC News. This was done shortly after Facebook’s pairing with ABC News (a challenge perhaps?). It provided people with up to the minute news, videos, commentaries and more. During the election results, it updated its interactive map at each outcome. It also continuously put up news feed.

On MySpace each candidate also had their own pages on what is refered to as “MySpace Impact”. Both John McCain and Barack Obama had MySpace profiles, though Obama’s was clearly more well kept and provided for. Here, you could relate to the candidates on a more personal level than what the NBC News desk was telling you.

To show the world your views on your profile, you could show your support for candidates as well with customization features. Sites like this one Promote 2009 US Presidential Candidates gives you several options of precious banners and graphics you could put on your page.
MySpace a thing of the past? I think not.









Resources:
MySpace joins the 2008 Election fever, finally by Arnold Zafra
MySpace Decision
08

The Obama Effect

Ever wanted a picture just like Obama? You know the ones where its in reds, blues and whites? If you have a Mac you are in luck because now there is a Obama effect plug in. Check it out here:


Get the "Obama effect" in Photo Booth with the Obamafy plugin by Jay Hathaway

Can You Hear Me Now?

Fun Facts

Podcasting: During the election Barack Obama’s podcast was featured at number four on the iTunes Top Podcast List.

Out of the top 100 podcasts, he was the only politician on the list.

Resources:
The Internet's Effect on 2008 Presidential Campaigns by Ed Kohler

Some Old School Stats

The 2008 Election had a ton of new technologies being thrown left and right, but some of the classic campaign technologies are still hanging on.

The Television still was America’s number one resource in the election, as reported by Tech News World, though they say it is on a gentle down climb. Statistics show that in the 2000 and 2004 elections about 68% of people got election news from their televisions. However, in 2008 it was supposedly dropped down 8%. The reason why the number is still over half is probably due to the fact that the older generations would still prefer to watch election coverage on television than via the Internet. Carroll Doherty, associate director of the Pew Research Center says, "I would expect that on the night of the primary, you're getting people who are interested in politics, so there may be age differences there.” It seems hard to imagine the television not being a prominent part of the election process, but as our generation becomes the majority; it appears that television statistics will continue to fall while Internet use statistics will rise.

People are still relying on newspapers as well, though not like our grandfathers did. It can be questioned whether the newspaper articles online is part of the new technology or the old, but it still accomplishes the same job. In Pew’s surveys people of ages across the board turn to Internet new sites. MSNBC has the higher vistitors at 26% followed by CNN and Yahoo. Drudge Report, MySpace, and Youtube also sit low on the list, each below 3%. A more detailed graph can be seen below of the changes in online Internet newspaper readers.

Resources:

Election 2008: Web Gains But TV Still Rules by Katherine Noyes
The Internet's Role in Campaign 2008 By Aaron Smith

YouTube Is Like Herpes, But for Positive

You are sitting around bored at home, so you and your friends venture onto Youtube: hilarity ensues. Why should the laughter ever stop? Yes, the election is a serious matter, but people are (hopefully) more attracted to the brighter side of life. Introducing the “Five Friends Campaign” where a group of our favorite celebrities were directed by Steven Spielberg, telling us to go out and vote; well, that’s not entirely true… See at first we were told to not vote. Why does voting matter? The videos slowly flip to every reason why we should vote. Then we are told to go out and tell five friends to register to vote. As Sarah Silverman puts it, when everyone’s starts telling their five friends it will be “rampant, like herpes, but for positive.” This campaign proved it genius, with each clip getting well over two million hits and it being shared across cyber space through emails and social networks and even word of mouth.

Youtube had tons of campaigns on its channels beyond the “Five Friends Campaign”. The Youtube You Choose ’08 Campaign featured all the registered party candidates. While on that channel you could see speeches, behind the scenes, informal dialogues and more. You could comment or video a response to something, showing your voice and maybe getting a response back.

The point of all these Youtubes, like the point to much everything else discussed, is to gain the younger vote. The younger generation rarely opens up a newspaper at the breakfast table or sits and watches the evening news. For one of the first times, candidates and their campaigns have realized this and have decided to take action and it absolutely paid off. According to CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagements, the youth statistics have soared in the 2008 election. They estimate that between 21 million and 23.9 million youths have turned out to vote, making the election the second highest turnout since Nixon’s 1972 election win.

Many of the Youtube campaigns were actually run by non partisan groups. The “Five Friends” campaign was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and the You Choose was run by Youtube themselves. This cost the candidates little to no money. The great thing about Youtube is it provides all the benefits of a television ad, minus the extreme costs of airtime, as Newsweek puts it. Had Obama and McCain bought the equivalent airtime on television, it would have cost Obama upwards of $46 million and McCain $1.5 million. The little costs it takes to produce the Youtube video is minimal in comaprision with these costs.

** Youtube had plenty of campaigns not talked about here such as the Will.I.Am “Yes We Can” Obama music video. Check it out yourselves when you have a minute on youtube!








Resources:
Presidential Candidates Turn to Youtube by Mike Sachoff
YouTube, You Choose
The Big Picture by Jessica Ramirez

Text Messaging

Text messaging or SMS (short message service) is one of the biggest ways of communicating today. I, on average, send about one hundred text messages a day. My friend, a Blackberry owner, says she sends about six hundred. Not only do people talk to their friends, but they also get stock numbers, sports stats and even coupons from different places. It seems obvious to get into text messaging for the campaign and once again, Obama had that market tapped.

While reading my introduction aloud at home my roommate asked me very kindly why I am writing an Ode to Obama after my second blog with him as a specific. Besides the fact that I voted for and supported him, the man and his campaign team truly had his technology mastered. President Obama himself is part of the new technology generation and apparently was extremely depressed when forced to give up his Blackberry that he was so fond of (Lose the BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe By JEFF ZELENY). Now, back to the campaign.

His text-messaging scheme was simple. You could go to his official webpage and sign up or you could text the short code ‘62262’, which spells ‘Obama’ on the number pad, and receive updates on his campaign. People have received texts from Michelle and other campaign staff, platform details, and requests to come out and support certain events. Each text provided a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ when they personalized it by using pronouns directed right at the individual, instead of the group. One of the most exciting things was when the people signed up for the texts received one shortly after midnight in the latter part of August that Joe Biden was the official Vice Presidential choice. However, there were some problems in the systems. Many signed up claimed that they never received the text, or got it hours later. These will be glitches that will have to be worked out for the future.

Unlike Facebook, the text messaging came at a hefty price. They had hired Distributive Networks to deal with the text messaging. It is reported by the campaign that between July of 2007 and November of 2008 they had spent upwards of $230,000.

Obama also had a Mobile Web set up for phones like the iPhone and Blackberry, m.barackobama.com. For this campaign they hired iLoop Mobile and it is reported that they only paid $7,000. A minimal sum compared to the cost of things like television ad.

Personally, I loved getting text messages from our future President. Reminding me to vote, giving me updates, being one of the first to hear Biden as his choice, it gave a very personal touch to something typically very impersonal. Minus the few glitches, the younger audiences definitely benefited from these texts.



Resources:
Tale of the Obama Text Message by Anne E. Kornblut and Ed O'Keefe
Lose the BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe by Jeff Zeleny
The 2008 presidential race: A baseline for the future of wireless campaigns by Gary E. Salazar

Facebook and the 2008 Election

The 2008 Presidential Election hit a bull's eye in the hearts of young America. It was an election showing the changes in our world and culture. Besides having two women and a Black man on the ballad, this election showed the latest technology techniques. Successfully it captured the attentions of the technologically savvy generation.

One of the most noticeable outreaches they used is with Facebook and some kindly dubbed the campaign the "Facebook election". Mitt Romney was actually the first potential Candidate to create a Facebook account, says CNN . On these accounts the candidates post speeches, personal information, and the newest things regarding their campaign trails. While all of them use Facebook now, Obama's campaign seemed to grasp the full concepts of the Facebook phenomenon. This can most evidently be seen in his statistics where according to US News , he received 70% of votes of the 25 years of age and under demographic. In fact, all of his statistics blow the other candidates out of the water. His biggest support group on Facebook was "One Millon Strong for Barack Obama", started by Farouk Olu Aregbe of University of Missouri. The Obama group outnumbered every other group with a final member count of 1,072, 071.

How did Obama come out on top of this "Facebook Election"? Chris Hughes, one of the founders of Facebook, actually helped the Obama campaign in his domination of the Internet. With Hughes on his side he virtually conquered every Internet outlet the public was popularly using.

Separate from the individual candidates, Facebook knew the power that it had in the election. They teamed up with ABC for debates and other public forums. This gave old and new media a bridge to each other. The deal entails using an application created by Facebook on the website, to show ABC campaign news, discussion forums, and ways to support the candidates.

Obviously, Facebook is a genius idea to launch campaign's on the public. Besides the aid they hire to set up and maintain the accounts, Facebook is a free social networking. The Facebook accounts must have taken little, if any money from the campaign funds. The Facebook concepts in general were widely accepted, as evidenced by the amount of members that joined each support group and "friended" the candidates. It allowed the modern generation to sign on and see a speech whenever they felt like it, posted by the candidate themselves. Their can be no perfect study to show the impact it had on the election, but with the turnout and voting statistics of the younger demographics, I think it can be inferred that the addition of Facebook on the campaigns was a huge success.

Resources:
Will the US Election Be Won on Facebook? by Linnie Rawlinson
Barack Obama and the Facebook Election by Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta
The Facebook Election by Carl M. Cannon
ABC News Partners With Facebook for 2008 Election Coverage by Daisy Whitney