Barack Obama kicked off his 2012 re-election campaign this morning. I first heard the news in an email. I'm interested to see how the campaign uses social media this time around. I followed the campaign last time and wrote about it in my book, Get Seen. I also reported on the campaign using new tools for journalism including streaming live with a cellphone from some campaign events. I'm very interested in what they'll be doing with video this time around.
Right at the start they are using all the tools, email, twitter, YouTube, Facebook, a blog and a website.
The sharing feature on Facebook is going to be big this year.
Let's look at each of the tools I saw in use this morning:
Email:
The email uses a thumbnail image to represent a video and links to the Obama 2012 campaign website with an embedded YouTube video.
Note that the thumbnail image in the email does not match the thumbnail image on YouTube. That might be confusing to some people who might think there are two different campaign kickoff videos.
Twitter - @BarackObama:
Today, we’re filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign. Say that you're in: http://OFA.BO/bWjHd7 #Obama2012
BarackObama
It was disappointing to hear that Barack Obama wasn't tweeting himself last time. Let's see how they use the account now.
Obama 2012 website - http://www.barackobama.com/:
The Facebook sharing integration is cool. I hope it doesn't get too noisy on Facebook.
Update: 8:26 AM:
It's getting noisy.
I gave permission to the Obama 2012 app to post to my wall. In one way it's exciting to see people join in, but if it gets too cluttered I can always hide or revoke the application by clicking the 'X' and choosing between:
- Remove Post...
- Remove Are You In?...
- Revoke Publishing Rights of Are You in?...
Video is BIG!
Here's the first one.
YouTube: Barack Obama 2012 Campaign Launch Video - "It Begins With Us":
306 views at 7:45 AM Eastern.
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/barackobama:
18,973,087 Likes at 7:54 AM Eastern.
Get Involved - http://www.barackobama.com/get-involved (formerly known as a blog)
3 Comments at 8:00 AM Eastern.
Your thoughts?