RECENT POSTS
- New Software Facilitates H1N1 Vaccine Distribution in Arizona
- Bowling Champ Says Asperger's Helps Concentration
- In First Person: Remembering the Lives Lost in Pam Am Flight 103
- Chinese Students' Hopes for Obama's Visit to China
- Student Wins People’s Choice Awards Design Contest
- Nothin' But Net: Netball Sweeps Across America
- 'I Survived the Swine Flu': A First-Hand Account of H1N1
- Former Playboy CEO’s 7 Tips for College Students
- Lukewarm Response to H1N1 Vaccine at Univ. of Florida
- School 'Spirit': Does a Ghost Roam the Hallways?
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
Has Social Media 'Replaced the Handshake'?
November 04, 2008 12:48 PM
ABC News On Campus reporter Wilson Andrews blogs:
By now, it seems as if everyone has a Facebook profile, including your favorite presidential candidate. Facebook is one of many social media tools that candidates are using to campaign in the digital age.
As more voters look to the Web to connect with the candidates and issues, politicians are responding with their own MySpace and Facebook pages, YouTube video debates and even avatars, or graphic representations of themselves, in the virtual 3-D online community Second Life.
Jesse Hirsh, a social media consultant from Toronto, has also put his tech knowledge to use as a political consultant. He says that social media and the Internet are powerful tools for campaigning in the 21st Century.
“It has replaced the handshake as the way to get (citizens) working, to get them mobilized for the campaign,” Hirsh said. “There’s an infectious, emotional, intimate connection. That’s what people feel on Facebook, they’re just manifesting that on a political level.”
Hirsh says that Barack Obama’s campaign has changed the way campaigns are run. “I’m very critical of some of the things Obama has done with social media, (but) what they’ve done better than the (John) McCain campaign is that they’ve created a sense of openness. There’s paranoia among most political staffers of losing control, but anybody, Canadian, Republican, can get on the Obama site,” Hirsh said.
Obama has created the social network My.BarackObama to foster voter mobilization and action.
Meanwhile, McCainSpace has taken a page out of the MySpace book, allowing users to create profile pages, upload videos and add comments to other pages.
Hirsh says that mainstream media’s comfort with social media provides an added benefit in the use of these online tools.
Hirsh believes Republicans will try even harder to utilize social media two years from now to “get back as
much as they can in the U.S. House and Senate.”
“It’ll be interesting, that’s for sure,” Hirsh said. “It might get crazy.”
November 4, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (0)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Post a comment
