Barack Obama, Technology and Young People

Technology and young people go hand in hand, and Barack Obama's campaign knew this from the start and ran a campaign that utilized both technology and young people in a way that had never been done in any campaign prior. In the end, this strategy lead to a historical win that would break all barriers and will become the model for all future campaigns that follow.

It all started with a little known election law in Iowa that allows 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by Election Day in November to caucus in January. Obama's campaign grasped this notion and brought it to a much higher level as they not only got young voters involved in the campaign but they got them excited in politics- not an easy feat to achieve for any demographic.

Obama's campaign knew that using technology, primarily the internet, could not only appeal to young people but to the internet-using population overall. In every sense, this year's presidential election has been dubbed the beginning of the Internet presidency, a change from the time of the television presidency that started with JFK.

President-elect Barack Obama had a lot of supporters but these supporters weren't only gained by making calls and going door-to-door. They were made supporters through the use of the Internet. Nothing was off-limits as Google Maps, YouTube and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter were utilized to the fullest as the candidate who wasn't really that well known just a year earlier gained instant stardom. Users of YouTube spent 14.5 million hours watching Obama campaign videos. Economically, this was a genius choice as television commercials would have had an astronomical price tag for the same type of coverage.

In addition to the Internet, Obama asked supporters for their cell phone numbers and blasted text-messages when important announcements were made, such as the pick for Vice-President. Obama even had a custom social networking site created just for his supporters with the help of a Facebook co-founder. This network helped supporters find other people who they could call out to and persuade to vote for Obama.

The results spoke for themselves. 3.2 million people donated to Obama's campaign through the campaign Web site alone. Obama's Facebook page has 3.5 million supporters and his official Facebook application had 161,000 active users during the campaign. According to Twitterholic.com, Obama's Twitter account reached 123,000 followers, making it the most popular account on Twitter at the time.

Bloggers were also busy as close to 500 million blog posts mentioned Obama (Trendrr.com). In addition, Obama had over 840,000 MySpace friends.
Obama's campaign knew they hit gold when many of their supporters came in the form of University students. They were old enough to vote and they were excited for change. Early on, Obama organized college chapters and worked hand-in-hand with them to organize rallies.

Students and technology mix well and according to a Harvard poll, 75 percent of college students have a Facebook account, and most check it daily. The Obama campaign understood that younger voters were more mobile and needed a campaign that suited their way of life, especially since young people ended up being one of Obama's largest donor groups.

E-mail was also used to appeal to young voters as young campaign volunteers and staff members would analyze online voter data and send e-mails to undecided voters, hoping to get their support. Then they would e-mail established supporters in hopes that they would spread the word. The effort didn't stop there as the e-mails would then be followed up with text messages, Facebook reminders, telephone calls and house visits.

Volunteer mobilization also used the language closest to young people- the Internet. The campaign was able to use e-mail communications to gather volunteers, print out Google Maps of their location and then use social networks to provide lists to the volunteers of numbers and locations of people that needed persuading to vote for Obama.

While the technological effort didn't come cheap, it was well worth the effort, helping raise a record-breaking $600 million for Obama. The campaign spent millions on hardware, software and Internet consultants, but in the end, he not only won the Presidency, but he also revolutionized the way that candidates do business with voters. And Obama also gained the vote of 66% of the 18-29 year olds that voted in this election, over 15 million young people.

Not surprisingly, Obama's use of technology did not end when the campaign ended. Rather, as Obama transitions to the White House, his technological effort will transition with him in the form of Change.gov, the custom-made site for supporters following the transition. Obama hopes to use the Web to measure voter attitudes and to truly create a conversation and consensus between the government and people... via e-mail, of course.