2. How Social Media is Changing Politics
“Social media strips away the intermediary
that media plays between people and their
government. It gets rid of that middleman
and allows people to interact directly with
their elected officials. The flattening of that
process has been tremendously helpful to
those of us who want to hear what people
think.“
- Paul Ryan, Vice Presidential Candidate
3. How Social Media is Changing Politics
O The PROS:
O Providing unprecedented access to
politicians and governments
O Forcing transparency and authenticity
among our leaders
O More ways for the people to get involved,
share their views and engage in dialogue
4. How Social Media is Changing Politics
O The PROS (cont.):
O Once just voters, people are now active
participants in the democratic process
O 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 address
O Now: weekly VIDEO address
5. 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)
6. 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
7. 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
million
O Only the World Cup was more
popular, according to Akamai
O More than 12 million people posted status
updates on Facebook saying they voted --
up 120% from 2008
(Source: Mashable, 11/9/10)
8. 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
9. Politics on YouTube
O Governments, political groups, politicians
and news organizations are using YT to
communicate with constituents
O Here are just a few:
O The White House
O Associated Press
O Al Jazeera
O Jerry Brown
O The Taliban (yes, even them!)
12. 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.”
13. 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
19. 2011 Arab Spring
O 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!!
20. Stop SOPA & PIPA
O Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Protect Intellectual Property
Act (PIPA)
O In January 2012, Internet companies and tech influencers
launched a huge cyberprotest to stop PIPA and SOPA
• 200,000 phone calls to Congress
• 7 million online signatures (via Google petition)
• 2.4 million tweets via Twitter
O Within 48 hours of being proposed on Capitol Hill, the bill
was withdrawn after the expected vote went from 80-31 in
favor to 187 opponents
21. Stop SOPA & PIPA
“To frame this battle properly, a loosely
organized group of Internet leaders
outwitted a well-funded lobbying
organization. And they did so in grand style,
convincing dozens of lawmakers to reverse
their votes virtually overnight.”
– VentureBeat.com
22. 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.
23. How Obama Used SM
O 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
24. How Obama Used SM
O 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
25. Obama’s YouTube Video
O Still the most popular political video of all time
(more than 25 million views since February 2008)
26. Specific SM Sites Used
O 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
27. By the Numbers
O Obama Myspace friends outnumbered
McCain’s by 5 to 1
O Obama Facebook Fans outnumbered
McCain’s by 4 to 1
O Obama videos on YouTube outnumbered
McCain’s by 5 to 1
O Obama channel video views on YouTube
outnumbered McCain channel views by 9 to
1
28. 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
29. 2012 Presidential Election
O Did Social Media predict the winner?
O Obama had roughly 3 times more Facebook
fans
O Obama had 20 times more Twitter followers
O Obama had approximately 9 times more
YouTube subscribers and video views
O Obama also dominated the online conversation
at large, taking a 64% share compared to
Romney’s 36% across
Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, blogs and
message boards.
(Source: SFGate.com)
32. The Mention Machine
O Washington Post news
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
