"Just Facebook me about it.."

Perhaps the biggest advantage Obama had in the election was his popularity and recognition throughout his campaign. Obama’s decision to run actually stemmed from a MySpace page that his supporters made for him prior to candidacy (Dignan, 1). Once he began campaigning, Obama steered away from the more abrasive e-mails and television ads that always interrupt you while you try to watch your favorite show. Rather, he chose to incorporate blogging sites, networking sites such as Facebook, a personal website allowing a personal connection with the public, as well as YouTube videos to get his points across and gain recognition. Obama was not looking for the cutting edge, newest technology available to help him win the election; instead, he kept it exciting yet simple. He stuck with things the majority of the computer-using public could understand—movable text and embedded videos (Dignan, 1). The real advantage Obama gained from using these new technologies was the sense of community and empowerment to the public.

As previously discussed, Obama had an unbelievable group of volunteers, and because his campaign largely took place through the internet and the public’s personal computers, a majority of the work and organization was outsourced to his supporters (Dignan, 1). This aided Obama with his campaign, especially with the election’s time constraints because he had thousands helping him. Volunteers were able to organize campaigning events in states that Obama did not target directly, widening his campaign. It also got his information out to the public in a rapid amount of time. Obama took full advantage of sites like Facebook because of the already established community feel it has. As David Carr, a writer from CIOZone, stated, “The Obama campaign has Chris Hughes, who was one of the three co-founders of Facebook and now runs the campaign’s my.barackobama.com, which itself is a sort of social network (Dignan, 1).” Obama was able to align himself with a few key people in charge of these community sites to better connect with people. He knew that he was not an expert in the field and therefore called upon those that were.