ThreeParts

President Obama on The Web: Cleaning It Up, Networking With Supporters

Jan 20, 2009 Social Media

DISCLAIMER:  This post has nothing to do with my personal political views, that of the company I work for, or any other organization that I am involved with.  This post is simply about the way a politician successfully uses the internet to change the way we interact with our government.

Regardless of our political views, I think web-savvy nerds everywhere can appreciate what President Obama is doing with his online presence.  While many people were impressed with BarackObama.com and Change.gov, there was some speculation over whether or not the beautiful look and feel would carry over to other official government sites.  Well, my friends, change has come WhiteHouse.gov, and it is a huge leap forward from what it was before.

Interestingly, Obama’s Director of New Media, Macon Phillips, introduced himself on the White House blog today.  Don’t quote me on this, but he may be the first person in history to hold this position.  If not, he is arguably the first person to do it effectively.

Not only can Obama’s websites hang with the best, but he uses social networking to connect with his supporters as well.  Most notably, he has over 3.8 million fans on Facebook at the time of this writing, as well as 144,000 followers on Twitter.  What’s interesting about his Twitter account is that he is following over 20,000 more people than follow him.  Of course, he will probably never actually view or update this account, but he is at least using his team to attempt to be more transparent, which I think younger generations will greatly appreciate.

He also uses YouTube as an outlet to share information with his supporters, and it appears to be working.  You can’t argue this with a user (especially a politician) who has over 20.5 million channel views.

You can find him on other prominent social media/networking sites including MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, Digg, and more at the bottom-right column of this page.

Of course, it remains to  be seen whether the majority of these accounts will be maintained or long forgotten.  Was all of this a ploy to gain votes?  Is he legitimately trying to connect government with a younger audience?  These questions cannot yet be answered.  

I think we can learn a lot from the new administration from a technological perspective in regards to our ministry.  It’s clear from the numbers I’ve shared that the web is important.  If President Obama gets it, then churches and pastors everywhere need to get it too.  Technology can lay the groundwork for an authentic relationship in the future.  And while most of us with never meet President Obama, technology can make people feel connected to what is going on, as if they are a part of it.  Face-to-face interaction is best, but for the times in between, the internet can help.  And in some cases, like President Obama, we may be able to connect with people that we don’t have the opportunity to meet face to face.

Let’s put our ‘party hats’ aside, and pat President Obama on the back for what he has accomplished online.  And then let’s take a few notes.

Tags: barack obama, new media, president, Social Media, social networking, web