Barack Obama: The Internet President

www.cnn.com as Barack Ombama wins the 2008 Presidential Election

In my opinion, there are 2 elections that the world really care about:
The US Presidential Election and The Election of the Pope

But what really ROCKED the world this time round at the Obama Vs. McCain 2008 elections was the POWER OF MEDIA. So many of us (myself included) under estimated the emotions and impact media can cause in the decision making process of a vote. This time round, a President was born out of the Internet!

The Obama Online Media Team should be rewarded with a big fat bonus, if they don't already have one. The Presidential Online Campaign was so successful, it will no doubt be taken as a case study for effective online marketing strategies. The team did many things right through 2 years of development and the website, www.barackobama.com saw numerous significant improvements.


www.barackobama.com splash page

If there is one thing Barack Obama does well, it is to toy with one's emotions. For a while, the above image of Obama and his family pride the landing page of the website. We all know that splash pages are so dated as they rank lowly on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) standings and are a total waste of time for your viewers. Yet, in this case, 2 messages are vital:
The POWER of WORDS and the POWER of IMAGERY

Somebody should really count the number of times Obama said "Change" and "Hope" throughout the entire campaign. By themselves the words are great, but just look how it transform when you put a wholesome, decent family picture next to it!

It didn't take too long that being found on the Internet was, and still is the no. 1 priority online. It's the simple rule of 'You don't exists, unless you're found'. In a race to the White House, you'd want to be found EVERYWHERE!

This election was the 1st in history to understand and harness the power of sharing and communicating through social media platforms to not only get out a message, but to energize a group of Americans into action. On MySpace alone, Obama has over 270,000 friends, Facebook shows over 200,000 and YouTube shows over 16,000 in subscribers. In addition, Flickr & YouTube Videos were integrated into his website.


Will.i.am's "Yes, We Can" from Barack Obama's remarks after he won the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina

Yeah, and don't forget to rally some of your superstar supporters to spice up a Martin Luther King "I Have A Dream" MTV for all those young voters!


The all so important Red Button

But the most important button stood red and bold on the right hand corner of the website. A 'Please Donate' button. Obama rasied over US$600 million during the campaign. At least half of that money has been raised through small website donations by over three million Obama supporters, giving an average of under US$100. It is also the first time a candidate has chosen to bypass public financing. In comparison, John McCain was given US$84 million from the public purse. If I had to name the smartest thing Obama did - this would be it.

The extra money gave him the edge to do so much more in delivering his message. It was clear that money and resources in putting materials such as videos, issues and even a blog online made an impact.

It was also timely that I completed my read on "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream". There's much hype and review on the book. Much like Bill Clinton's "My Life", I thought a little insight into the biography of the next US President would be interesting.

On 5 November 2008, the United States of American have their 1st African American President. Who would have thought... Undoubtedly, one of the most emotional elections in history. This time the Americans voted with their heart.

Unfortunately, after reading a book, countless articles and watched the presidential debates; I am still scratching my head as to what Obama has to offer. So really, what's the CHANGE???