Power of Internet for Politics

The internet is not all about fun, even the serious stuff is included. Yes, politics is part of the serious stuff. When it comes to the combination of politics and the internet, President Obama's presidential campaigns will come to mind - even without going through what was covered in class.

Many people attributed Obama’s success in 2008 directly to his Internet strategy, and the New York Time noted that his campaign’s use of YouTube and Facebook changed the face of American politics. He received high coverage for his methods of promoting/marketing himself through the use of social media to reach a wider audience. That, in the end, became tremendous help towards him becoming America's current president.

Many people try to avoid politics because they feel that it's not their main concern and whatever the government does has little effect on their everyday lives. However, that is not true. It is important for us to keep track with current affairs and also, what is going in politics. The decisions made in politics will have some impact on the people - especially the younger generation.

Double thumbs up to his campaign team for knowing their stuff:

His team understood how useful and efficient the Internet is and along with the social media aspect, it will elevate the campaign to a whole new level. Obama dominated the social media space because his team understood how to get the internet to work its full magic. The real power of social media is not dependent on "the number of posts or Tweets but in user engagement measured by content spreadability".

For example, Obama logged twice as many Facebook “Likes” and nearly 20 times as many re-tweets as Romney. With his existing social media base and spreadable content, Obama had a much bigger reach.

Obama changed the way elections were run and how it will in the future. He and his team showed the power of social media and technology and more importantly, that individuals could make a difference if given the right tools and support. The campaign itself demonstrated the power of the Internet to get people engaged in the process on a scale never done before.