The most re-tweeted picture in history!

Since Tuesday November 26, 2012, the role that social media has played throughout the U.S elections has been continuously blogged about by marketers all around the world. Over the years, the role and impact that social media has had on politics has grown at exponential rates. In this year’s elections, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube became the most prominent forms of political communication. I remember less than a decade ago how political campaigns relied on public speeches, voting stands and rallies to convince voters. The 2012 elections have certainly changed political marketing as campaign leaders can spread their voice and their messages both instantaneously and interactively through social media.

In my mind, social certainly was a persuasive tool during the elections.  Between 2008 and 2012 Team Obama created the largest and most comprehensive voter database in history as as stated in Hispanic Business Week.

Differences between the two parties social media presence on election night ( International Business Times) :

President Obama: 32 million Facebook fans, 21 million Twitter fans and ~ 300,000 YouTube views.

Romney: 12 million Facebook fans, 1.7 million Twitter followers and only ~ 30,000 YouTube views.

Did Obama’s stance as the popular kid on the internet help him become home coming king?  The answer will never truly be known but one cannot deny the impact social media played on reaching a larger demographic and potential population that would otherwise never vote. We do not have the ability to quantify whether teenagers passion ignited through Facebook had any impact on the voting members of his/her family nor can we quantify whether the social media feeds projected to the millions of readers subconsciously impacted either of their siding or even their voting turn out. It very well may have been that apathetic citizens become roused by the scores of tweets and Facebook status that they couldn’t help but notice on a daily basis. One of the key drivers of my interest in the U.S elections came from everything I was reading online. It was Facebook and Twitter that made me aware of issues that I would have never personally pursued had it not been constantly thrown in my face

Facebook and Twitter are some of the greatest tools of engagement to date.  From a marketing perspective, the following are some of the lessons we can learn from the 2012 elections internet marketing campaigns:

1)      Community Engagement and earned media: earned media probably is least costly but seems to be the most powerful and influential medium today.  You need to drive community interactions and real conversations with voters and not just depend on paid advertising by pushing out your brand content to the world offline.

2)      Authenticity: both the tone and content of conversations on these various social platforms need to be authentic – something I believe Obama did a great job at. Pushing out content in a one way stream about your brand isn’t going to get you the “likes” and support that you did a decade ago. You can no longer “buy “ your target audiences’ attention; it is all about earning it.

3)      Timing is important: it is crucial to actively manage the various social media platforms by listening to your audience and responding to them in a timely fashion.

4)      Know your target audience and be everywhere they are: if your target market is on social media and you are not- it’s game over for you. Both Romney and Obama invested heavily in social media.. why? Because it’s exactly where there target audience (voters) were.

5)      Contingency planning: it is difficult if not impossible to predict the success of your campaign and therefore it is vital that you have a contingency plan in place that is able to fix issues that come your way.

So was social media the reason behind Obama’s victory after all? Thoughts…comments?