Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The correlation between the use of social media Web sites among
different age groups and the influence of such sites on the 2008
presidential election.
by
Dave Rigotti
An
adaption
of
his
thesis
as
partial
fulfillment
of
the
requirements
for
the
Bachelor
of
Business
Administration
Degree
with
Honors
in
Marketing
from
The
University
of
Toledo.
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
About
the
Author
Dave Rigotti is a writer, speaker, and Internet
marketer. He’s work(s/ed) with some of the most well‐
known and influential brands in the world, conducting
search engine optimization and developing marketing
communication strategies. In July, he will be joining
Microsoft as a consumer‐focused marketer on Bing
(formerly Live Search), Microsoft’s search engine.
Dave recently graduated from The University of Toledo (BBA with Honors, magna
cum laude, 2009) after majoring in marketing and entrepreneurship, family and small
business. This PDF is an adaptation of his thesis.
Be sure to visit his blog and follow him on Twitter.
II
Rigotti,
Dave
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The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Disclaimer
/
Legal
Information
All
contents
copyright
C
2008
‐
2009
by
Dave
Rigotti.
All
rights
reserved.
No
part
of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by
any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Limit of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher has used its best
efforts in preparing this book, and the information provided herein is provided "as is."
Dave Rigotti makes no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy or
completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaims any implied
warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose and shall in no event
be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not
limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Trademarks: This book identifies product names and services known to be
trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective holders. They
are used throughout this book in an editorial fashion only.
III
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Abstract
Research was conducted to determine which main presidential candidate of the
2008 presidential election, Barack Obama or John McCain, was more effective at using
social media and the impact these efforts had on obtaining votes, with a breakdown by
age.
IV
Rigotti,
Dave
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The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Acknowledgements
This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Dave and Connie Rigotti, who have always
supported my numerous endeavors.
I’d also like to thank Professor Carol Sullinger, Dr. Thomas W. Sharkey, Dr.
Ainsworth A. Bailey, ShareThis, eMarketer, and everyone else who helped me in writing
this thesis.
V
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Table
of
Contents
About
the
Author ...........................................................................................................................II
Disclaimer
/
Legal
Information .............................................................................................. III
Abstract............................................................................................................................................IV
Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................... V
Table
of
Contents ..........................................................................................................................VI
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1
Candidates’
Web
Sites .................................................................................................................. 7
Social
Networking........................................................................................................................10
Facebook ....................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Myspace ......................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Digg.................................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Twitter............................................................................................................................................................................ 15
Collaboration ................................................................................................................................18
Meetup ........................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Media ...............................................................................................................................................20
Flickr ............................................................................................................................................................................... 20
YouTube......................................................................................................................................................................... 21
Voting
Results ...............................................................................................................................25
References......................................................................................................................................29
VI
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Introduction
The Internet has played an integral role over the past few years in public
elections. In fact, according to research gathered and reported by eMarketer Inc., 64%
of U.S. adult Internet users agree that the Internet has become important for the
campaign process in 2008.i Additionally, 24% of U.S. adults learned about the
presidential campaigns through the Internet in 2008,ii making it the 5th most used
source.
especially since politics are so fragmented? A 2007 New York Times article wrote:
Some experts… cautioned against overstating the potential ramifications
of the Internet divide. After all, Mr. Dean’s candidacy, which stalled after
the Iowa caucuses, showed that runaway success online is not enough.iii
So, we get to the question: What is the correlation between the use of social
media Web sites among different age groups and the influence of such sites on the
2008 presidential election?
However, before explaining this issue, it first needs to be noted that “influence”
is an arbitrary idea. Technically, a non‐voter could have influenced the results of the
election. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to filter non‐voters out of social media sites, so
they are counted in data collected. However, the exit poll numbers reflect only U.S.
citizens over the age of 18 who voted.
1
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Another
parameter
to
establish
for
the
purposes
of
this
thesis,
is
the
sites
included in social media. They are: social networking, social aggregation, blogs, and
video and photo sites. Included sites were subjectively chosen, based on: size,
candidates’ presence on site, and potential for facilitating influence.
Web site research was conducted the two weeks prior to the election, October 20
through November 3, 2008, with supporting research and writing from November 4
through February 5, 2009.
This paper will be looking at both campaigns’ Web sites, Facebook, Flickr,
Youtube, Myspace, Twitter, Meetup, Technorati, and Digg. Actually, to put reach of all
the sites into perspective, below is a graph of their U.S. monthly unique visitors
according to Compete.com (NOTE: All data provided by Compete.com is of U.S. visitors
age 18 or greater).
2
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
As
you
can
see,
youtube,
myspace,
facebook,
digg,
and
flickr
dominate
the
social
media scene, all having 20 million or more U.S. unique visitors in September. However,
how did the campaigns use these sites and how effective were they to each candidate?
Isolating the smaller sites, twitter, technorati, and meetup all had roughly the
same U.S. unique visitors at roughly between 2 and 3 million.
3
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
According
to
data
provided
by
Compete,
Inc.,
selected
social
media
sites
sent
hundreds of thousands of visitors to both the Obama and McCain’s official campaign
Web sites in September 2008.
The reason for providing these graphs is to show the potential for influence with
the candidates’ sites as reference. The more traffic a site has, generally, the more reach,
or number of people, it has to influence.
4
Rigotti,
Dave
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The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Visitors
Referred
to
Candidates'
Site
meetup.com
twitter.com
Social
Media
Site
jlickr.com
digg.com
McCain
myspace.com
Obama
youtube.com
facebook.com
Number
of
U.S.
Unique
Visitors,
ages
18+,
Sept.
08
Of
the
selected
social
media
Web
sites,
Facebook
was
most
effective
at
sending
traffic to the official campaigns’ Web sites, followed by YouTube and Myspace,
respectively. Low impact sites included Meetup, Twitter, Flickr, and Digg, all sending
less than 20,000 visitors to each campaign’s site in September. However, what type of
traffic are they sending? Were the referred visitors even of age to vote and located in
the U.S.? This data, among other data, is what I’ll look at in each site’s breakdown.
ShareThis isa company that has created a small widget, or a small application on
a Web site, that allows users to share a specific Web site with friends via social media,
email, and others. Their widget tracked what articles were being shared, based on the
keywords of “obama,” “biden,” “mccain,” and “palin”. The results are below:
5
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Election
Sharing
Activity
100%
90%
80%
Percentage
of
Shares
70%
60%
50%
Obama
40%
Biden
30%
McCain
20% Palin
10%
0%
4‐Sep
11‐Sep
18‐Sep
25‐Sep
2‐Oct
9‐Oct
14‐Aug
21‐Aug
28‐Aug
24‐Jul
31‐Jul
16‐Oct
23‐Oct
30‐Oct
7‐Aug
Date
Obama
had
roughly
50
to
90
percent
of
sharing
activity
until
August
2008
when
McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate. Up until the first week of October
2008, Palin had much more success than Obama or McCain in sharing activity, with her
highest day achieving 72 percent of shares. However, as the election neared, Palin’s
sharing activity drastically declined, while Obama’s rose. Sharing is defined as telling a
contact, or friend, about the article or Web site, through the ShareThis widget.
6
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Candidates’
Web
Sites
Before we take a look at the social media Web sites, let’s first look at the
candidates’ Web site demographics to understand the type of visitors they attracted.
Looking at the candidates’ Web site visitor age, we see that barackobama.com
attracted a slightly higher percentage of voter‐aged visitors as a percentage of total
visitors, when compared to johnmccain.com, according to data compiled on
Compete.com.
Age
Groups
as
a
Percentage
of
Total
Visitors
40
30
Percent
20
barackobama.com
10
johnmccain.com
0
18‐34
35‐49
50+
Age
Group
Also using data provided by Compete.com, we see that barackobama.com had
nearly double the unique visitors of johnmccain.com in September 2008, as shown on
the graph below:
7
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
This
is
an
indication
that
the
Web
was
more
utilized
by
the
Obama
campaign
when compared to the McCain campaign; however visitor numbers don’t necessarily
translate into raising campaign dollars, or more importantly, actual votes come election
day. Approximately 100,000 more visitors to barackobama.com was through social
media, based on the social media referrer data.
Next, each of the social media sites will be individually analyzed. I will be looking
at each candidate’s presence on the site, the age of users, and the potential for voting
influence.
8
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Blogs
Technorati
Technorati,
a
site
best
Technorati
Search
Results
known
for
it’s
blog
search
blog posts based on keyword
candidate received more mentions on blogs at large, an indication of blog share of voice.
It needs to be noted that I could not segment based on blog country origin, so
results include international blogs as well as U.S. blogs.
Above, we see that “obama” returned over 650,000 results, and “mccain”
returned just over 500,000 results on the search engine. This indicates Obama’s share
of blog voice, or the overall blog coverage, is roughly 30% higher than McCain’s.
While just blog mentions don’t indicate tone of message, Obama clearly had a
higher share of voice than McCain on blogs.
9
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Social
Networking
Facebook
Facebook, one of the most dominate social media Web sites, had 28.21 million
visits in September from people who are 18 years of age or older and residing in the U.S,
based on data provided by both Compete.com and Quantcast.com.
Obama spent more advertising dollars on Facebook than any of the other social
media sites. Actually, from January through August, the Obama Campaign spent nearly
$112,000 on Facebook, according to ClickZ.iv
Facebook representation can be measured in two ways. First, by using
Facebook’s advertisement targeting feature, the number of profiles that mention the
keyword “obama” or “mccain” can be determined (labeled on the graph as keyword).
Secondly, both Obama and McCain have Facebook profiles for which supporters,
dubbed “fans,” can add them as friends (labeled on the graph as fans). Both are
represented on the graph below and it’s quite clear that Obama dominates Facebook
with both keywords and number of fans.
10
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Facebook Representation of Candidates
2,500,000
Number
of
Instances
or
Fans
2,000,000
1,500,000
Obama
1,000,000
McCain
500,000
0
keyword
fans
Type
of
Representation
users
that
have
chosen
to
Political
Association
of
Facebook
Users
publically
associate
themselves with a
are moderate, according to data provided by Facebook on March 6, 2008.v If the data
hold true, McCain should have a higher Facebook representation, based on the political
associations when compared to Obama’s numbers.
11
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
32%
more
Facebook
users
indicated
they
were
liberal
than
conservative,
but
Obama had 270% more friends than McCain. This indicates that either Obama had a
disproportionally large number of supporters or McCain had a disproportionately small
number of supporters on Facebook.
While 12 to 17 had an index (Note:
audience compares to the online Internet population as a whole. An index of 100 indicates
a site's audience is at parity with the total Internet population.) of 272, 47% of
Facebook’s visits come from those who are 18 to 34. This is important, because either
candidates’ representation numbers can be skewed by those not old enough to vote.
According to a Pew Internet survey,vi Gen Y (age 18‐32) constitutes 30% of the
Internet population, reaffirming Facebook’s high index for users age 18‐34.
Obama dominated McCain on Facebook. Additionally, a large percentage (33%) of
users are under the age of 18, meaning they were not eligible to vote in the election.
12
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Myspace
Myspace,
like
Facebook,
allows
users
to
connect
with
others
through
their
over the age of 18 in September,
domestically than Facebook. Age distributions closely mirror that of Facebook’s with
33 percent of traffic coming from those under 18, and 44 percent of traffic coming from
those between the ages of 18 and 34.
800,000 friends, compared to
McCain’s
paltry
5,187,
shown
Obama
McCain
on
the
graph
to
the
left.
is questionable. Myspace, like
Facebook, is a site people use
to connect with each other, share news and information with friends, and keep track of
contacts. Even though Obama had many more “friends” than McCain, the age and
geographic location of users, in addition to the site being designed for users to stay
13
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
updated
on
people,
not
persuade
them,
makes
the
impact
questionable.
This
is
questionable even though MySpace referred over 52,000 U.S. visitors to
barackobama.com, and over 37,000 U.S. visitors to johnmccain.com in September 2008.
Even though Obama had many more friends than McCain, Myspace profiles sent nearly
the same amount of traffic to each of the respective sites. On possible reason for this is
that Obama’s friends were less active on Myspace than McCains.
Even more so than Facebook, Obama held a clear advantage over McCain in terms
of friends, however the impact number of users had on the campaign is
questionable.
Digg
Digg
is
a
news
aggregation
Web
site
that
allows
users
to
add,
rate,
and
comment
on news articles. It’s considered to
be a low impact site, because of the
voting age, with 28% of total visitors between the ages of 18 and 34, as evident on the
graph.
To determine candidate share of voice, two searches were done using the
keywords “obama” and “mccain,” respectively, and the number of results pages
recorded. “Obama” returned 109 pages of results, while “McCain” returned 88, meaning
the share of voice was in Obama’s favor, but not as much as on of the other sites.
14
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
However,
when
looking
at
the
content
of
these
submitted
news
items,
a
large
percentage seem to be pro‐Obama and anti‐McCain (or Palin), meaning that even
though McCain’s share of voice was fairly close to Obama’s, most of that voice was
negative.
Obama edged out McCain in terms of number of pages of results, however the
perception of the candidates seemed to be in Obama’s favor. The impact, in terms of
referred traffic to the official website of the campaigns’, is minimal.
Twitter
Twitter, a micro‐blogging service that allows its users to send and read other
users' 140 character updates (known as tweets), had nearly 3.25 million accountsvii
worldwide and was used by both Obama and McCain. However, the campaigns used it
for different purposes. Obama used Twitter to update on location, while McCain used it
to unveil new advertisements, press releases, and statements.
The number of users following Obama’s and McCain’s updates and the number of
times the candidates’ Twitter account had been updated can be seen below:
Twitter Followers Twitter Updates
Obama
Obama
McCain
McCain
15
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
In
addition
to
the
campaigns
utilizing
Twitter,
other
Twitter
users
had
also
been
very active in mentioning Obama and McCain. Using Google and the site: search feature,
there were 1,260,000 instances of “obama” and 725,000 instances of “mccain” on
Twitter.
Based on data of Twitter users who have tweeted about Obama and McCain,
provided by Twitrratr.com, Obama (sample size: 24120 tweets) had more positive buzz
on Twitter than McCain (sample size: 13966 tweets). Twitrratr works, according to
their website, by using a pre‐defined list of positive keywords and a list of negative
keywords. Twitrratr then searches Twitter for the user‐defined keyword, and the
results are cross‐referenced against the adjective lists. The results are complied and the
relative number of positive, negative, and neutral twitter messages are displayed
accordingly.
Perception on Twitter
100%
95%
90%
positive
85%
negative
80%
neutral
75%
Obama
McCain
16
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Very
arguably,
this
is
not
a
very
good
way
of
measuring
perception.
For
example,
a tweet from user @aldy reads, “Obama should be his own press secretary, his current
one sucks when talking to the press.”viii Even though this tweet was after the election, a
similar one before could have given Obama (or McCain) negative perception, since
“sucks” is on the negatives list. However, this was mentioning that Obama’s press
secretary sucks, not him.
Compete.com. In looking at the different age groups of Twitter, we find that nearly all
users are over the age of 18.
While the site has millions of visits from 18+ year olds in the U.S., its impact is
relatively low, especially when compared to the other social media Web sites, like
Facebook.
17
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Collaboration
Meetup
Meetup was the most utilized collaboration Web site between Obama and McCain.
Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands
already meeting up face‐to‐face. In essence, Meetup is a basic way to engage and
organize supporters online for offline activism.
Obama had over 14,000 active members, and McCain had just over 1,750
Obama
outcome
of
the
election,
what
McCain
it
organizes
might
very
well.
low traffic and referred few visitors to the official campaign Web sites, it was
instrumental in organizing volunteerism. The site is also dominated by voting age
members, especially in the 35‐49 age group.
To put impact in perspective, an article titled “How Obama Won” by Rolling
Stone writes:
18
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Howard
Dean
used
the
Internet
for
meetups
—
Obama
used
it
to
create
a
movement. It was enormously important for getting the message out, raising
money and mobilizing voters. Those are the three things — message, money and
mobilization — that the Obama team saw and executed on brilliantly.ix
While Meetup had fairly low traffic and referrer volumes, it was instrumental in
bringing online activism offline.
19
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Media
Flickr
Flickr is a site that allows users to upload digital images and tag them with
interactive or social as a site like
visitors are over the age of 18.
Obama and McCain had many pictures in professional and semi‐formal
situations, with most of them being fairly candid.
20
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Because
these
images
contain
a
very
short
message,
if
any,
the
actual
impact
for
influence is fairly low, however it’s still important to note Flickr has 90% of its
traffic coming from visitors of voting age.
YouTube
Youtube, one of the world’s largest Web sites in terms of traffic, was an integral
part of each campaign, allowing the candidates to publish campaign updates,
commercials, and more. Unlike the other social media sites, YouTube allowed the
campaigns to provide an experience
to potential voters – both with audio
one of the few instantaces that integrated social media directly with campaign
fundraising. According to a Washington Post article:
The campaign activated the Google Checkout option on all of its YouTube videos
on Tuesday, meaning viewers can make donations from $15 to $1,000. Checkout
allows online shoppers (or in this case, voters) to create a single login for all
online purchases (or donations).x
21
Rigotti,
Dave
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The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Even
though
the
12
to
17
only 19% of its U.S. visitors fall into
this category. The 18+ category, or
accounted for 78% of the nearly 63 million unique visitors in September. Additionally, it
needs to be pointed out that 42% of U.S. visitors to Youtube are 35 years of age or older,
meaning they are of prime voting and donation age.
be different for each candidate. A look at the top videos reveals very positive content on
Obama and very negative content on McCain. In fact, a video with over 8 million views
is titled “McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare,”xi which is essentially a
very strong anti‐McCain video.
22
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Obama
clearly
YouTube
Subscribers
dominates
YouTube
there were many more people interested in receiving updates on Obama’s videos than
McCain’s videos.
Obama
also
had
more
YouTube
Channel
Views
channel
views.
While
this
include less restrictions in content, and allow the candidate to have a clear presence.
Obama held another distinct advantage over McCain on one of the most visited, and
arguably the most influential, sites of the election. Additionally, the tonality of
23
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
videos
was
greatly
in
Obama’s
favor;
however,
22%
of
YouTube’s
traffic
comes
from
users not of voting age.
24
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Voting
Results
The graph below represents four major age groups as a percentage of the total
voters for both the 2004 and 2008 presidential electionsxii. It is important to note that
social media did not appear to attract any new voters as a percentage of total voters.
Presidential
Election
Results
Percentage,
as
a
Total
of
all
Votes,
for
their
40
35
30
25
respective
year
20
15
10
2004
5
2008
0
18‐29
30‐44
45‐64
65
or
over
Age
Group
Total
Popular
Vote
2004
=
121,069,054
2008
=
129,391,711
According
to
official
reports
by
the
Federal
Election
Commission,
the
popular
vote (Bush/Kerry) for 2004 was 121,069,054xiii and the popular vote (Obama/McCain)
for 2008 was 129,391,711xiv, an incredibly small marginal increase.
If social media didn’t attract any new voters, did it influence voters who
originally supported one candidate to actually vote for another candidate?
25
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
The
below
graph
shows
not
only
the
distribution
of
ages
from
voting,
but
also
the percentage of total votes for the age group. The 50‐64 age group was the dominate
voting group, accounting for over 27% of total votes, while 18‐24 year old voters
accounted for just over 10%.
Voting
Results
by
Age
Group
and
Candidate
Percentage,
as
a
Total
of
all
Votes
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
Obama
4%
McCain
2%
0%
18‐24
25‐29
30‐39
40‐49
50‐64
65
or
over
Age
Group
Based
solely
on
this
data,
it
would
appear
that
Obama
made
more
strides
in
attracting the younger voters than McCain, and social media could be named as an
influencer. However, let’s look at voting patterns. Could it be that Obama was a more
attractive candidate to younger voters, just as John Kerry may have been, and that it
wasn’t driven by social media?
John Kerry, in 2004, attracted 54% of the 18‐29 year old voters, while Obama
attracted 66%. Additionally, in the 30‐44 age category, Kerry grabbed just 44%, while
Obama received 52% of the votes.
Using some extrapolation and assumptions, the graph below represents the
average age (from Quantcast.com) of the social media sites mentioned in this paper
26
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
(excluding
Technorati)
and
that
age
group’s
percentage
of
total
votes
in
the
2008
presidential election (from CNN.com).
Percent
of
Social
Media
Use
and
Votes
in
the
2008
Presidential
Election
by
Age
Group
45%
40%
35%
30%
Percent
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Under
18
18‐34
35‐49
50+
%
social
media
site
usage
18%
42%
24%
15%
%
votes
0%
28%
31%
31%
Age
Groups
Sources
Quantcast.com
%
social
media
site
usage
%
votes
and
CNN.com
Not surprisingly, 18% of social media usage is by those not even old enough to
vote. Additionally, the 18 to 34 age group accounted for 42% of social media site usage,
but only 28% of votes. In essence, the younger visitors (<35 years old) accounted for
most of the social media site usage, while the older voters (>= 35 years old) accounted
for most of the votes.
27
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
Conclusion
In conclusion, based on research conducted, social media was a great connector
and had some impact on voters, especially in the 18‐29 age groups. However, I maintain
that it was more of a connector than a direct influencer in getting candidate votes.
Obama having, in some instances, more than 10 times the exposure on some social
media sites and basically being at parity with McCain in the 30‐64 age groups in
percentage of votes, indicates social media wasn’t as impactful in older age groups.
Indirectly, social media was an instrumental enabler. It connected hundreds of
thousands of volunteers, referred millions of visitors to the candidates Web sites, and it
provided information at incredible speed.
Social media marketing, especially in politics is here to stay. It’s nearly free and,
as political advertising becomes more fragmented, candidates will be looking to reach
users wherever they are and social media sites are no exception. In looking at the
future, candidates will start to use social media as an influencer and a fundraiser, rather
than a way to just push out standard content (like press releases) and update users on
their location.
28
Rigotti,
Dave
|
The
Social
Media
Use
of
Obama
and
McCain
References
i
USC
Annenberg
School
Center
for
the
Digital
Future,
“2008
Digital
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17,
2008
as
cited
by
“Web
Insight”
press
release,
March
17,
2008
ii
Pew
Research
Center
for
the
People
and
the
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of
pew
&
American
Life
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Broader
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in
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l>
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29