lunedì 5 novembre 2012

Converting followers into voters

In early 2007, Barack Obama was a little-known senator running for president against Democratic nominee and household name, Hilary Clinton. But on November 4, 2008, Obama, was the first African American to win the election against Republican candidate, John McCain, becoming the 44th president of the United States.
We can say that a major success factor for Obama’s victory was how Obama’s campaign used social media and technology as an integral part of its strategy, to raise money and more importantly, to develop a groundswell of empowered volunteers who felt they could make a difference.

In 1960, Americans turned on their tv to watch a presidential debate for the first time. They saw Richard Nixon, awkward and sweaty. To his right was John F. Kennedy Jr, calm, tanned, deliberate, standing out in his dark suit. There wasn't much question about who won the first televised debate that night. In an election in which nearly every vote counted, media power shifted public opinion.

We are now in the era of Twitter. The proof is in Twitter's big role in shaping the coverage and the winners and losers of this month's presidential debates.
Sixty percent of social media users responding to a survey in October 2011 said that they expect candidates to have a social media presence. 
For almost 40 percent, information found on social media will help determine their voting choices as much as traditional media sources like TV or newspapers.



Sara Berton

1 commento:

  1. In my opinion the political debate has always been based on the ability to persuade people and to convert them into followers. In the ancient Greece the debate was face to face maybe in the square of the cities, in the 21st century we decide presidents, majors, leaders by internet or by watching them on television. But what has not changed during centuries is the ability that has to be showed by a leader to be a “sophist”: to appear as the best solution possible. This approach is based on stereotypes and is rooted deeply in our minds, why we still not able to look over the appearance by using the help of our culture?
    Michele Taufer

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