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Policy

Obama electioneer worried about waning social media appeal

By Robin Hicks | 15 June 2009

Scott Goodstein, the brains behind United States President Barack Obama’s online election campaign, told delegates at a conference last week (Wednesday 10 June 2009) that the effectiveness of social media platforms as a communication tool for government is likely to wane – and fast – in the coming months.

Goodstein, who was talking at ad:tech in Singapore, said that while he was “amazed” by the power of Twitter, Facebook, mobile and email as communications tools to raise support for the Obama campaign, he was “nervous” about the ability of social media tools to sustain their popularity over time.

“Technology moves so fast. Since Barack Obama was elected, five different smart phone have come out, and two more will hit the market this week. The way the Obama team will communicate the President’s message in 2010 is likely to be very different,” he said.

“I must admit that I am nervous about response rates to social media campaigns and what the best way to reach people will be in the future. Will we have to go further down the ‘long tail’ to find small platforms with growing audiences as the popularity of established platforms falls?”

During last year’s Obama campaign, the people using micro-blogging service Twitter were the early adopters, said Goodstein. Just 1.6 million people were users this time last year. The platform now has 32.1 million users, but growth slowed to just 1.5 per cent between April and May this year.

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