Case Study - Written by Dan Trzinski on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 13:05 - 2 Comments
Obama Brings Social Media to the White House
Well, unless you have been completely “off the grid” the past few days, as my friend Danny Clayton so eloquently commented recently, we have a new President. It’s no secret that President Obama’s campaign used social media masterfully last year to win both his party’s nomination and general election. Now it appears the new President is bringing social media right to the oval office.
I became aware of a site called Change.gov shortly after the election that is a full-blown social media site about the Obama presidency. It seems our new president wants to hear our ideas on what he should be doing. Visitors of the site can vote on the best ideas. So far, over 125,000 users have submitted about 44,000 ideas and cast more than 1.4 million votes. The best-rated ideas will be gathered into a Citizen’s Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama in the oval office.
Idea sites like Dell’s Idea Storm and Starbucks’ My Starbucks Idea have been documented as very successful social media case studies. What has made them successful is that they have really paid attention to the ideas, acted upon the good ones and explained why the impractical ones wouldn’t work. They have created a dialog with their customers.
While I applaud the attempt by our new Commander-in-Chief…the question remains, will he actually act on any of the proposed ideas and create a dialog with the American people? At the time of this post, the second most popular idea on the site was to legalize marijuana…and that was posted under homeland security! Anybody as nervous as I am?
2 Comments
Jenny
While I applaud President Obama’s willingness to listen to the ideas and suggestions of the nation, I remain fairly skeptical about this website’s prospects.
If one spends a few minutes reading political posts on Craiglist or visits a political chatroom or two, they’ll see the exchange of verbal barbarity between bomb-throwers on both sides of the aisle. From the radical Left’s screaming for President Bush’s arrest for war crimes and their newest derogatory nickname for Governor Palin to the far Right’s cry for President Obama’s birth certificate and accusations that he’s a closet Muslim, there’s a serious lack of legitimate debate and discussion of the actual issues our nation faces.
I’m hopeful that these profane ideas and thoughts don’t find their way to this site, but I’m far too realistic to believe that they will not.
I don’t think it is all doom and gloom for this site though. I do view this as a great way to get people informed and energized about a candidate…something that will only increase the number of people interested in politics.
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General - Jun 21, 2010 8:21 - 0 Comments
It’s Your Birthday!
More In General
- Facebook Takes a Hit
- Wisconsin says “Don’t text and drive!”
- Sitting On The Sidelines Of Social Media
- What’s On Your Refrigerator?
- Facebook Beats Google
Obama’s use of social media is one of the most interesting developments in current politics. For a reminder of how far the internet and the media have progressed since G.W’s first inauguration, take a look at this http://i.gizmodo.com/5135581/the-white-house-website-today-vs-when-bush-took-office.
Although it’s disappointing and a little nerve-wrecking to know that Americans are most motivated to demand the right to be high, I can’t help but think that those same ideas came into the White House during previous presidencies. The difference is that the public never had to hear about or see those futile requests, whereas now we are able to see what each other are thinking now…for better or for worse.
That’s the risk of social media. When you provide people with access to instant commentary, they use it before they think or edit themselves.