Former President Barack Obama was coined “the first social-media president.” Obama was the first president to tweet off of the @POTUS twitter account in 2009 (Bogost 2017). His 2008 presidential election was our first look at a political campaign with internet influences. In 2011 Obama, for the first time in political history, announced he was running for a second term through a YouTube video. He continued to expand his reach across platforms conducting several Q&As on Twitter and even interacted with voters on Reddit. Obama used social media to build his character and to humanise him to the American people.
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| photo from the LA Times |
Obama took a normal and relateable approach to social media compared to Trumps more chaotic approach. Trump’s social media thrived off controversey, anger and negativity. But it got people talking. Trump used Twitter to announce and gain support for his policies and things he personally supported - like the border wall and foreign ties - no matter if said things would actually ever get passed.
In broad terms, Trump and Obama’s goals were the same - engage with their audience and both were successful in achieving that goal.
https://contentgroup.com.au/2017/09/social-media-campaign-trail-obama-trump/
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