January, 2012
President Barack Obama will be addressing citizens’ questions and answers via a live chat on Google+ next week. Users who want their questions addressed will have to load a video question to YouTube by January 28th. Not all videos will be chosen, but for those which he does select, the users will be invited to the “Hangout” to live chat directly with the President. For more information, please visit Gizmodo.com.
January, 2012
GOP presidential hopefuls are experimenting with mobile ad campaigns to target specific locations and interest groups. These ads target ZIP codes that have been determined to have a high concentration of supporters and deliver actions such as watching a video or looking up a caucus location. Mobile ads are cheaper than display ads and have higher engagement rates. “If we don’t hit them on their phones, we’re missing a huge opportunity for people who are voters,” said Mitt Romney’s digital director, Zac Moffatt.. For more information, Please see adage.com
January, 2012
Yesterday over 2.4 million tweets regarding SOPA and PIPA were share during the hours of 12 AM and 4 PM EST. Generally, most tweets were against the new bill proposed by Congress which aims to stop online piracy. If passed, the act would allow content owners to pull any information they deem infringing on foreign sites, such as Wikipedia or Google searches. To learn more about the anti-SOPA campaign on Twitter, please visit Mashable.com.
January, 2012
Facebook and NBC News are leveraging online polls to immerse the brands within the political race. Facebook has received prominent branding within NBC’s “Meet the Press” coverage of the GOP debate. Facebook also included polls on candidate favorites in Iowa and New Hampshire, and NBC featured results of the polls within the show. Facebook users who had questions for the debaters were even allowed to send in their inquiries via a Facebook app, and watch as the debaters shared their responses live on the show. As the political races ramp up, expect to see more Facebook and social media live feedback and results. To learn more, please visit InsideFacebook.com.
July, 2011
Facebook will be teaming up with NBC to host the Republican Presidential debate in New Hampshire. NBC will have host, David Gregory, air the debate as a special on Meet the Press. There will also be a live streaming link on Facebook to create an interactive experience. Joel Kaplan, vice president of U.S. public policy at Facebook, stated, “voters expect to be able to learn about and interact with candidates on Facebook.” Users will be able to start discussions and post questions before and during the event. All of this is due to the success that Barrack Obama had using social media in the 2008 election. For the full story, please visit Mashable
June, 2011
Iceland has turned to social media in order to generate suggestions and discussion on new constitutional amendments. Constituents can view drafts of the newly revised constitution online and submit amendment recommendations via Facebook. The recommendations must be approved by local staff before being posted online for discussion and then passed on to the Council for debate and voting. Once an amendment is approved by the Council, it is added to the draft of the constitution. Iceland is also using social media to make Council debate and discussion more transparent. Meetings are being broadcast live on the web and Facebook and Council members continue to engage in discussion via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. For more information, see ABC News.
May , 2011
YouTube’s new channel is launching digital debates between members of Congress in town hall style “meetings”. YouTube Town Hall focuses on discussions on topics such as budget, economy, energy, Afghanistan, education and health care – chosen by the top political searches on Google. Each Congress member involved in the debate submits a video response on the subject to the channel to get their POV out, and viewers only find out party affiliation of the members AFTER the views are heard. YouTube has plans to begin accepting questions from viewers in the future.
May, 2011
The White House will host a live webinar discussing the death of Bin Laden and the events that lead up to his assassination, including the 9/11 attacks. The webinar will be streamed live by Discovery Education and is targeted to teachers and students, specifically those in middle school and high school who may have been too young to remember the September 11th, 2001 attacks. The webinar will consist of a 15 minute live presentation by the deputy assistant to the president, Ben Rhodes, and will be followed with a 15 minute live question and answer session. Student and teachers can submit questions before and during the webinar to Ben Rhodes about Bin Laden and related events over the past 10 years. This webinar is one of many efforts by the administration to engage with citizens over social media and the internet. For more information, see Mashable.
May, 2011
ClearedJobs.net, a website developed by veterans to support military personnel looking for jobs, will push “Military Month” with a Twitter campaign to provide support to military spouses. While their loved ones are away, Twitter followers who use the hashtag @MilSpouseDay on Monday, May 2 can share notes of support to deployed military members’s family. In addition to finding military members careers post-service, the company also offers a “Social Media and Sandwiches” course where military members can learn how to leverage social media to find job positions.
April, 2011
U.S. President Barack Obama is tapping in to Facebook to promote his re-election in 2012. A recent Harvard University study found that roughly 55% of the 18-24 voting demographic is in favor of Obama, making Facebook an integral medium for maintaining connection with the young demographic. The Facebook page is being promoted as a portal to not only get to know the President on a more personal level, but to encourage users to spread their support by “friending” the campaign and checking any friends on their own list that might also vote for President Obama.
February, 2011
Congressman Christopher Lee resigned merely hours after his shirtless scandal hit Craigslist. The scandal best showcases the increasing speed of information relayed throughout the internets. Some media experts are calling this increase in speed the “News Diffusion Theory”. For example, it took three months for news to spread about Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, six hours for news to travel of Kennedy’s assassination, and merely a matter of minutes for the Lee scandal to circulate the internet. For more information regarding this story, please visit WHEC.com.
February, 2011
Facebook, Google and IBM have partnered with the United States White House to launch “Startup America”. The campaign is dedicated to spurring entrepreneurship within the country. The campaign’s website said the purpose of the initiative is to “marshal and highlight commitments from companies, universities, and non-profit organizations that will spur the creation, scale, and support of high-growth firms.”
February, 2011
Google, Twitter and SayNot have released Voice-To-Twitter in hopes of helping Egyptian protestors. The service will allow Twitter users to call in and have their messages tweeted. “Anyone can tweet by leaving a voicemail on one of three international phone numbers: +16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855. Tweets sent using the service will automatically include the hashtag #egypt,” said Lauren Indvik of Mashable.com. Ujjwal Singh, co-founder of SayNow, said, “We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there.”
November, 2010
Research by Anthony Calabrese, contributor to MediaShift, found that 74% of candidates who ran for the 2010 midterm election and had the most Facebook fans won their race. In addition, 88 million American Facebook users clicked on the “I Voted” button on the homepage, in comparison to 5.4 million who clicked the button during the 2008 elections. Twitter, Foursquare and Google also jumped on the elections by posting election results in realtime.
October, 2010
A new Foursquare initiative from digital marketing firm Proximity is turning the open Chicago mayoral seat over to the king or queen of check-ins. Residents of the city are invited to check-in regularly to a venue called “City of Chicago – Mayoral HQ”, and on Nov.1 the “Mayor” of this particular venue will be declared the winner. And the prize isn’t just bragging rights – Proximity will provide the winner with a marketing support team to get that person officially placed on the ballot for Chicago’s Febuary election. The contest is being hosted and winners are being tracked in real time at FoursquarianCandidate.com.
August, 2010
In order to persuade Florida voters during the primary election August 24, Democrat Attorney General candidate Dan Gelber put campaign efforts in the hands of Google mobile ads. The ad campaign targeted voters as they waited for their turn to cast their ballot, aiming to let them know that Gelber had been promoted by several major Florida newspapers. If a voter saw the mobile ads, such as one reading “Gelber Gets Endorsements”, they were able to click through to learn more and continue to search for information about the candidate. Google text ads and Facebook ads were also running in tangent with efforts to persuade votes.
June, 2010
EARTHJUSTICE, a public interest law firm, is using Foursquare to raise money to help protect wildlife initiatives. In it’s most recent campaign using Foursquare, EARTHJUSTICE put up posters around the San Francisco area that featured an oil rig with the copyright, “Use your cell phone to drill the oil industry.” With every check-in on the EARTHJUSTICE Foursquare page, a company donor would donate $10 to the prevention of unsafe oil drilling.
March, 2010
Tim Pawlenty, governor of Minnestta, holds the first town hall meeting on Facebook. Leveraging his growing fan pase of 31,000+, the govnor plans to use Facebook as a platform to communicate with rupubican voters on the internet.
January, 2010 The National Republican Congressional Committee will host a live SMS chat during President Obama’s State of The Union on January 27th. People can text UNION to 777218 to join in. On the flip side, the White House will host live video of the State of the Union on its mobile app as it takes place this Wednesday. With the growth of mobile, politicians are even participating.
