Entry 12 : Obama: The multimedia President

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This campaign is just kicking off. We're opening up offices, unpacking boxes, and starting a conversation with supporters like you to help shape our path to victory. 2012 begins now, and this is where you say you're in."

The above quote and video are extracted from the My.BarackObama.com site and all these relates to the preparation of the 2012 President Election. From here, it is really not hard to see why Barack Obama is known as the multimedia president. The 2008 President election had left a deep impression on all Americans mainly due to Obama's seeming omnipresence. Prints, radio, TV, web, mobile and games - he was everywhere. Obama's multi-pronged and multimedia approach targets the younger internet generation who spent a greater amount of time online. The campaign's viral videos, text messages, email blasts and online advertising, organizing and solicitation for funding was unprecedented.

The following are 5 ways on how Obama multimedia campaign trumped the traditional old-school election campaign:

1. Videos
The 2008 Obama Campaign had uploaded over 1,821 videos on their YouTube channel over the course of 2 years. In comparison, his then competitor, McCain had only uploaded 329 videos. Some of the popular videos include that of A Perfect Union Speech, Dancing With Ellen and Iowa Caucus Victory Speech.

Hot videos from the Obama fan-base were also embedded on blogs, facebook walls and enjoyed healthy circulation.

2. Funds Raising
According to Blue Digital Estimates, the campaign had raised raised more than US$200 million from more than a million online donors. Even as we speak now, the Obama team has already started raising funds through the My.BarackObama.com site in preparation for the election campaign in 2012. Donations procedures are easy and hassle free. Donors just need to press the top right "DONATE" button and follow the instruction provided accordingly.

3. Fighting Smears
Accused of being a socialist, a closet Muslim, an Arab and "palling around with terrorists", Obama's campaign launched its own FightTheSmears.com site. The website allows fast-checked on every claims and clarifications on the spot.

What better way to defend its team from other candidates attacks!

4. Social Networks
The tools on MyBarackObama.com was based on rebuilt versions of those created for the Howard Dean's 2004 campaign. However, it was revamped and equipped with with popular social network sites such as blogs, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Meetup.com and various online activism tools. This allows the Obama team to reach out to the younger generation who has grew more IT savvy over the years. Such method also eliminated the obstacles such as time and distance. This provided people with the sensation that they are present (in some cases, omnipresent) at and participated in the dramatic unfolding of events with regard to the election.

Want to find out more about Barack Obama? Take part in the Presidential trivia challenge which is interactive and fun at the same time!

5. ObamaMobile on the iPhone and text messaging
ObamaMobile allowed users to take a look through their contacts, and organize them by key battleground states, making it fast and easy to reach friends during the campaign. It also anonymously reported how those calls initiated in the app and relayed the info back to the Obama campaign.The Obama campaign also sent out a SMS to 2.9m mobile users who signed up to be the first to know of his VP selection. It instantly created a mobile phone database that the campaign could exploit. Here, Obama branded himself as cutting edge, inflated the already enormous press attention paid to him and his team. It also further established a list of supporters' most coveted form of contact: their cell phone numbers.

Obama continued his multimedia approach after being elected as the President Of America. After being his election, the White House launched Recovery.gov, a site that tracks where stimulus money will be spent. This comes after a revamp of the White House's own site, which added blogs, behind-the-scenes photos and video addresses from the President.

Barack Obama is truly a multimedia president.