social media & politics
TRANSCRIPT
SOCIAL MEDIA & GOVERNMENTS
March 20, 2012
How Social Media is Changing Politics
O The PROS:O Providing unprecedented access to
politicians and governmentsO Forcing transparency and authenticity
among our leadersO More ways for the people to get
involved, share their views and engage in dialogue
How Social Media is Changing Politics
O The PROS (cont.):O Once just voters, people are now active
participants in the democratic processO According to Pew Center, 25 million
Americans self-identify as “online political activists”
O Evens the playing field for candidates (deep pockets are less of a factor now than “friends” and “followers”)
O Before social media: weekly radio addressO Now: weekly VIDEO address
How Social Media is Changing Politics
O The CONS:O More participants through social
media = more noise and more polarization
O Partisanship is increasing and “turning off” much of the electorate
O User-generated media is being used to sensationalize and exaggerate the other side’s faults (often with misleading and inaccurate facts)
How Social Media is Changing Politics
O The CONS:O Rising number of hyper-networked
political minorities that work to block action rather than find solutions
O Political gridlock at an all-time high
Stats From 2010 Mid-Term Election
O Online activity peaked at 5.7 million page views per minute (avg. is 3 million) - 32.5% higher than the 2008 peak of 4.3 millionO Only the World Cup was more
popular, according to AkamaiO More than 12 million people posted
status updates on Facebook saying they voted -- up 120% from 2008
(Source: Mashable, 11/9/10)
O 74 percent of House candidates with the most Facebook fans won their contests
O 81 percent of Senate candidates with the most Facebook fans won their contests
Stats From 2010 Mid-Term Election
Politicians on TwitterO John McCain has
most followers (1.7 million)
O Republican followers outnumber Democrat followers by 2 to 1
O Republicans more likely to engage followers (67% vs. 41%)
Source: Los Angeles Times, 9/9/10
The Mention MachineO Washington Post ne
ws app that monitors Twitter and media across the Web for mentions about presidential candidates
O Reveals trends and spikes that show where the conversation is and why
Politics on YouTubeO Governments, political groups,
politicians and news organizations are using YT to communicate with constituents
O Here are just a few:O The White HouseO Associated PressO Al JazeeraO Jerry BrownO The Taliban (yes, even them!)
The White House on YTO Former Press Secretary Gibbs took the
first question for every press conference via video on the White House YouTube channel
CitizenTube
O CitizenTube: YouTube’s wildly popular politics & government channel
O Curates the best political videos and featured original interviews
O Co-hosted town hall meetings during the 2008 election
YouTube Town HallO Snapshot of U.S.
political opinionsO Town Hall
Leaderboard highlights popular videos from Congress
O Facilitates discussion around important issues
The First Viral Political Video
O In 2006, Howard Dean (Democrat running for president) gave a speech in Iowa which quickly became known as “the scream heard around the world.”
O In 2006, Howard Dean (Democrat running for president) gave a speech in Iowa which quickly became known as “the scream heard around the world.”
O Resulted in a huge media backlash – people thought he was unstable/crazy
O Hundreds of “Dean Scream” remixes on YT
O He lost the Democratic nomination to our current president
The First Viral Political Video
2009 Iranian Elections
2011 Arab SpringO People in several Arab countries
Used FB and Twitter to organize massive protests
O Egyptian government then blocked these sites so a group of engineers from Google, Twitter and SayNow created @Speak2Tweet, a speak-to-tweet service for protesters in Egypt
O Social media has the power to topple governments!!
2008 Presidential Election
Inspired by the desire for change, people leveraged their personal networks of family and friends, and accomplished the unexpected: propelling a long-shot Senator out of the shadows and into a towering victory over an American war hero with more than 25 years of commendable political experience.
How Obama Used SMO Created “Obama for America” – a
small team of dedicated staff that used social media to organize and rally supporters
O Promoted universally-appealing concepts that weren’t political but instead personal and community-oriented
O Adopted a transparent approach to communication and made information readily accessible – shared a lot and often
How Obama Used SMO Used social media sites to organize
volunteers and get people to encourage their friends to volunteer
O Gave people tools to create their own messages/activities in support of the campaign
O OFA empowered people to do it themselves – people made the campaign their own
Obama’s YouTube Video
O Still the most popular political video of all time (more than 25 million views since February 2008)
Specific SM Sites UsedO Used Scribd to upload policy documents and
speeches so people could download and read them and share across their social graphs
O Used Twitter to blast video links, media interviews, campaign news and upcoming rallies
O Used LinkedIn’s groups section, where campaign staff as well as supporters could answer specific questions and respond to related discussions initiated by the site's users
By the NumbersO Obama Myspace friends outnumbered
McCain’s by 5 to 1O Obama Facebook Fans outnumbered
McCain’s by 4 to 1O Obama videos on YouTube
outnumbered McCain’s by 5 to 1O Obama channel video views on
YouTube outnumbered McCain channel views by 9 to 1
Results/Takeaways O Ushered in a new generation of
politically-active citizens O Allowed Americans unprecedented
access to the candidates – we felt like we really “knew” them
O Helped elect a president with the least amount of political/government experience in modern times
2012 Presidential Election
O Will be the most participatory election in American history
O 50+ year-olds make up the fastest growing demographic on Facebook (old people vote!)
O Social media is also #1 way to engage 18-35 year-olds
O 94% of social-media users of voting age engaged by a political message watched the entire messageO 39% of these people went on to share it with
an average of 130 friends online