Just thought I'd highlight the story recently that Obama conducted a Town Hall type meeting in which he responded to questions asked via Twitter. The chosen questions were selected by algorithms that pooled the most popular topics.
One of the questions was from House Speaker and leader of the opposition, John Boehner, who said,
"After embarking on a record spending binge that's left us deeper in debt, where are the jobs?"
I find the subtle but serious political jockeying to be funny, and the "coolness quotient" of Obama using Twitter like this to also be interesting.
Thoughts?
1 comment:
Timon-
I, too, find the increased use of technology and social media in political campaigns to be fascinating. Remember the first CNN/YouTube presidential debate?
Of course, marketing is all about image projecting, and so much of a Twitter town hall (or a You Tube debate) is to project the candidate as cool and in touch. Does it really make much difference whether the President takes questions that come in to the White House mailroom or via Twitter? In content, surely not. In coolness, in the ability to seem like you're in touch and interacting with the country, by all means. And isn't that what social media- twitter, Facebook, etc, is all about? Connecting people and forming 'relationships', whether real or in business.
This also hints at the other role of social media in marketing-- that is, customer service being the new form of marketing. So many companies differentiate themselves (legitimately) by differing levels of customer service, and technology now gives them another platform to play on.
Look at Zappos.com-- in many ways, the company established its dominance based on large part due to its extraordinary customer service. It succeeded because of its ability to appear to customers like it was listening and paying attention- and at the same time, have some cool appeal. It is hardly any different than politicians reaching out and taking questions from social media!
Post a Comment