OK, so maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but it may well have contributed. Whilst reading through the news surrounding Obama’s historical victory this morning on the BBC website I found links to both candidates own campaign websites. So I had a quick look over the websites out of interest and to see how the different campaigners were utilising an online presence in their bid for the white house.
Both websites contain a blog (although McCains doesn’t load very well) but the striking difference on Barack Obama’s is that he has utilised social media elements to allow tagging and sharing of the website content and individual posts. He also provides links to his various official social networking pages including facebook, linked in, myspace, twitter, flickr, youtube and many more.
This shows a candidate who is using all the modern day tools which are at his disposal to good effect and potentially shows a new approach to political campaigning which we will see come to the fore in forthcoming elections. It might not have been the main reason he was elected, but it at least shows that the power of social media is reaching out past its usual boundaries and more into the mainstream.
