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Barack Obama’s Twitter: Silence.

By Joe on November 11, 2008

Nothing infuriates me more than people who don’t understand social media and trespass into the space only to boost their marketing efforts. Sadly, Obama gets a thumbs down from me regarding his Twitter account. He has a few opportunities to salvage his brand equity.

Brand equity is the value that others have built in you; not your company, your status, but of your overall contributions. I’ll explain this into more detail in upcoming entries. Obama has an incredible amount of brand equity and he’s letting it drain, especially when he needs it most. He went silent from Twitter.

It appears that Obama apparently used social media (Twitter) as just another checkbox in his political campaign. This isn’t good, especially for someone with nearly 130,000 followers on a growing social network.

Barack Obama's latest/last post on Twitter.

Obamas last/latest post on Twitter. November 5, 2008.

Unfortunately, the President-Elect doesn’t quite understand the impact he has on Twitter and further, social media. If you didn’t know, Barack Obama became the most popular person to be followed on the micro-blogging service, Twitter. As many might guess, his public relations team tweeted under his name. Normally, this might be appropriate for publications which aren’t intimate like magazines, quotes, or whatever. But not in social media.

I’m going to have to call bullshit here. It pisses me off when I see “power users” blatantly abuse social media for their own benefit.

Unlike dying platforms like television, radio and print media; social media is about you (and) your message, not only your message. People have an unstoppable need to connect and identify with others. Twitter helps facilitate authentic relationships with passionate followers. Oh, and it also helps people communicate, too.

People need to realize that you can’t just hustle and pimp out social media without actually caring about it themselves. Social media reminds me of those hair-raising spikes in controlled parking lots. People who participate in social media can’t simply back out without risking damage to their tires [reputation].

What should Obama do?

Tweet (post a message on Twitter) about WHAT HE IS DOING FROM HIS BLACKBERRY. That’s all. Here are a few possible ideas which people are surprisingly interested in:

  • Where is he?
  • TwitPic images of his location — like in the White House, perhaps?
  • Responses to tough questions from reporters…
  • Questions to his supporters, like “What are you hoping for?”
  • Announcements of his newly-built administration
  • What he’s eating for dinner.
  • Moments of rest with reason: “Going to sleep, just balanced the 2009 US Budget.”
  • What he’s reading (books, mags, news, etc.)
  • What he’s watching (movies, TV, etc.)

These aren’t only what the President-Elect can Tweet about. Of course, I can imagine that the White House Press Corps would love to engage with the president directly through Twitter, too. Imagine that. A real utility, eh?

So, I decided to search Twitter for others who have noticed the silence from Obama’s half-engagement with Twitter. Here are several Tweets on his abandonment of Twitter:

Now, I’m not one-sided in the aspiration that social media has to be used all the time. I know Obama has a tough job ahead of himself, which includes long days and probably will be operating in crisis-management all the time. It would be nice to read what’s on the president’s mind.

I only expect him to at least sign off of Twitter if he can’t commit to one message a day. Maybe the president is not ready for social media; nevertheless, social media is ready for the president. Can’t deny that.

What do you think?

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  • jdoe
    You are kidding right??? Americans are dying and beign maimed in the Middle East wars, the economy is in the loo, people are losing their homes to forclosure, the elderly have lost their retirement savings in a falling stock market,the American auto industry is on the verge of bankruptcy, etc., etc. and you are complaining that Obama is ignoring Twitter? The man has a wife and two precious children ... they need any moment of his spare time more than social networking. I know you are not going to believe this, but once upon a time there was no web, no cell phones, no blackberries, and no other techno-wizardry that the youth of today need just to exist. And believe it or not, presidents ran the country and people had full, rich lives. Ask your grandma :-)
  • Bill
    Something along these lines perhaps?

    "Back from Iran. OMG it's so hot there! Met with Ahmadinejad and told him to back off from nuclear weapons. PWND!"

    http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/wp-content/uplo...
  • Joe
    @jdoe,

    I'm not necessarily complaining about his lack of Twitter usage. I find his abandonment of the Twitter platform to be insulting to social media and his 130,000+ followers.

    I expect him to at least have his team post a message pointing them to www.change.gov and to state that he won't be using Twitter. Instead, he just remained silent.

    That's the problem. I don't care if he doesn't use Twitter, I just want him to follow through on his marketing practices and conclude his usage of Twitter, officially.

    Trust me, I know there was a time without the Web, cell phones, Blackberries -- but there was radio, television, magazines and newspapers. We're at the point in this era where consumers are shifting their media usage away from mainstream media over to social/consumer-driven media. It is an insult for someone to use it for a short period only to abandon it. Obama isn't alone, many corporations are just as guilty of this too.

    I think you raise a good point -- the digital divide. I think it's the time that we (as Americans) can hold the White House and Presidential Cabinet to a higher level, in terms of remaining accessible to citizens. Further, we need to make sure that older folks get the support and resources they need in order to fully leverage social media. It's a hell of a powerful too. See, it doesn't matter if I'm old or young; we can all share ideas through social media. With TV and Radio, we can't.

    ~Joe
  • Joe
    @Bill
    LOL, nice thought; but I would love to see Obama at least share one thought a day. Doesn't even have to be about the country... just one thought. His campaign of Hope should have given birth to giving hope everyday in his presidency.

    To be fair, I don't fault him for lack of Tweeting; I do call bullshit on his Twitter and his campaign PR team for exploiting it and abandoning it. That's all.

    Thanks for the comments. I look forward to more pithy and interesting feedback in the future.

    ~Joe
  • The same thing happened with our Canadian election - all party leaders were signed up and only one has continued to tweet updates. Sure, it's a bit annoying to just use it as a marketing tool, but a good chunk of Twits use it as one, anyway - they're just more consistent because they haven't been, you know, elected as President and all.
    New York Times had a good food-for-thought piece last week about the President-Elect in Web 2.0. It's more than likely Obama won't be allowed to keep his Blackberry, anyway.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/us/politics/1...
  • You might want to try change.gov for a better response if that is what you are seeking. I agree with the poster above if my President spent his time on twitter instead of running the country my goodness we would be in trouble. Further more his aides run the site and even if you did tell them to place something on there does it really matter. There are so many other avenues that he is speaking on. Have you checked out his weekly YouTube addresses? I bet not, have you gone to change.gov his transition site I wonder. C'mon let's put things in perspective.
  • Joe
    @Utelllit

    Thanks for sharing that site. Unfortunately, Obama missed a huge opportunity by directing his 130K+ Twitter followers to Change.gov. I think it's a good site... don't know how long it will stay alive once he assumed office.

    I appreciate Obama addressing the nation via YouTube. That is the advantage he has, anyone can receive it on-demand. One can only hope people will have a general interest in the political discourse in the country.

    Thanks for the comment.

    ~Joe
  • V Bright

    jdoe :
    You are kidding right??? Americans are dying and beign maimed in the Middle East wars, the economy is in the loo, people are losing their homes to forclosure, the elderly have lost their retirement savings in a falling stock market,the American auto industry is on the verge of bankruptcy, etc., etc. and you are complaining that Obama is ignoring Twitter? The man has a wife and two precious children … they need any moment of his spare time more than social networking. I know you are not going to believe this, but once upon a time there was no web, no cell phones, no blackberries, and no other techno-wizardry that the youth of today need just to exist. And believe it or not, presidents ran the country and people had full, rich lives. Ask your grandma


    ...and yet Obama (or his lackeys) found time to twitter BEFORE he was elected. As I recall he had two precious children AND the economy was failing way back then too. It's more a point of if you want to "play" with the American public, don't pack up your toys and leave as soon as you get elected. What other disappointments have we in store?
  • Now that he's president-elect, he's probably retooling his social media strategy to conform with laws that require all presidential communications to be logged and transparent. Sending through a public network could be out of bounds for him. I know there's already speculation that he's been forced to give up his Blackberry. Plus, I would think he's a little busy right now, so I'd cut him him a little slack for the time being.
  • Guest
    Speaking of Barack Obama:

    Barack Obama is a racial-minority individual, and in his heart and mind he inevitably does not endorse hate crimes committed by George W. Bush.

    George W. Bush committed hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism (indicated in my blog).

    George W. Bush did in fact commit innumerable hate crimes.

    And I do solemnly swear by Almighty God that George W. Bush committed other hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism which I am not at liberty to mention.

    Many people know what Bush did.

    And many people will know what Bush did—even to the end of the world.

    Bush was absolute evil.

    Bush is now like a fugitive from justice.

    Bush is a psychological prisoner.

    Bush has a lot to worry about.

    Bush can technically be prosecuted for hate crimes at any time.

    In any case, Bush will go down in history in infamy.

    Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
    B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
    Messiah College, Grantham, PA
    Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

    “GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG
    ______________________
    I am not sure where I had read it before, but anyway, it is a linguistically excellent statement, and it goes kind of like this: “If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Oh wait—off the top of my head—I think the quotation came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.
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