In May, President Obama finally acquired an official Twitter account and shattered previous
records by acquiring one million followers in less than 24 hours. Now, the Washington Post’s Julie
Eilperin has published an in-depth article on the relationship between the Obama administration and
social media, which goes back long before the POTUS Twitter account launched.
Calling Barack Obama the first president of the social media age, Eilperin says that the White
House’s social media engagement is “likely to forever change the way American presidents
relate to the public.”Her article goes on to raise interesting questions about the effect that this might
have on national politics. But I am interested in the topic from the standpoint of a Los Angeles social
media company, not a Washington, D.C. think tank. So my focus tends toward the question of how
other politicians will use social media to market their campaigns and their political brands in
times to come.
Next year’s elections will almost certainly be a test of the ability of new presidential hopefuls to
leverage social media as effectively as President Obama has done. And the lessons learned by
their campaigns will have ramifications all the way down the political hierarchy. Especially at a time
when SEO and social media marketing are more conducive to local results, even candidates for state
legislatures, city councils, and school boards will be well served by partnering with a local SEO
company and local social media company to keep pace with the demands that the social media age
imposes on the political process.
