A Web 2.0 President?

Franklin D. Roosevelt was radio president. Kennedy was the first television president. Reagan the first movie-star president. Will Barack Obama be America’s first web president?

The 2008 US Presidential Election will be a referendum on many things - the war in Iraq, the Bush years and now the economy - but it can also be viewed as a referendum on old versus new media.

While the 72 year old, admitted technophobe McCain is the default old-world media candidate, Obama has been the new media superstar, embracing web 2.0 technology and techniques with aplomb.

If Obama wins a tight election, it could well be argued that his legions of online followers and donors were the difference. If Obama wins handily, as current polls suggest, is likely thanks to a strategy that saw him grow his following at a grassroots level online, then saw the “Obama meme” spread like wildfire during the Democratic primaries. His grassroots, small donor approach saw America’s first black presidential candidate raise record amounts of funds before he even received the nomination. Just last week, the money was still flooding in, allowing Obama to campaign hard, and buy massive amounts of traditional media as the poll looms.

How did a relative unknown, black junior senator become the hottest presidential candidate in two decades? By creating a social network and doing with tools that allow people to get engaged very easily. The Obama campaign made it very easy for people to participate.

There’s the Obama blog

The Obama iPhone application (these things were only just invented around the time the primaries were gearing up)

Obama Facebook - as of August he had 1.3million friends compared to McCain’s 200,000

Obama MySpace - 500,000 friends v. McCain’s 63,000

Obama has a MyBo service that lets you sign up to get news updates, speech texts, and lots of info for helping with the campaign.

Perhaps the most revealing stat: Obama has almost 63K people following him on Twitter, while McCain barely has 1,500.

Obama released the announcement of Joe Biden as his running-mate via email to “subscribers”, although was trumped by traditional and new media when it leaked early.

Its goes on. Win or lose, there is no doubt that Barack Obama has changed the face of politics in America.

No wonder Barack Obama is Advertising Age’s Marketer of the Year.

While the Republicans haven’t been as Web 2.0 savvy, they have seen the power of the digital media in effect. Sarah Palin has been a big hit on YouTube, although not necessarily in a positive way. While early clips and speeches shared online mobilised the right, Palin’s interview with Katie Couric soon spread like wildfire to the glee of Democrats.

Parodies of Palin on Saturday Night Live have made the venerable comedy show a hit again, but online views of the skits have now eclipsed the broadcast audience, another campaign first.

If the current economic crisis is possibly a turning point in media and marketing history, then the US election is merely confirming the changing tide.

And don’t think that politicians around the world aren’t paying attention. British Prime Minister has begun using Twitter to detail his daily activities, whilst Australian Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull has been the talk of the local blogosphere since his first tentative Tweet. After two weeks Turnbull has 958 followers and is following 932. Crucially he is allowing direct messages and has been responding publicly to reasonable comments and questions.

The big question now is whether Obama will maintain his Web 2.0 practices if he becomes president? He has the potential to revolutionise democracy, providing the American people with a real voice in politics, in the same way he has revolutionised political campaigning.

Posted under Online, Social Media, Uncategorized, Web/Tech