IMPULSA 14

This is exactly the idea that Barack Obama had, strengthening the relation with his
consumers while acquiring a new demographic, that had previously been overseen.
Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion
website (Wikipedia, 2017), where Obama opened direct dialogue between him and
electors, saying he would answer questions from the customers. An idea that turned
into a successful strategy proving the force of digital marketing channels by achieving
23,000 responses.
When asked why Obama logged on to Reddit, one campaign official responded
“Because a whole bunch of our turnout targets were on Reddit.” By using a newer,
underused media channel like Reddit, Obama’s campaign acknowledged a largely
unaddressed demographic of unlikely voters on social internet boards. (Media for
America, 2013).
In accordance with his campaign that promoted him as a modern, accessible and
friendly candidate, President Obama took social media’s use to the next step with the
creation of his own social network. Obama’s official social network, my.barackobama.
com, was at the heart of the campaign’s new media strategy. Affectionately referred
to as MyBO, the site allowed users to create events, exchange information, raise
funds, and connect with voters in their area. (Harfoush, 2009).
It is important that we clarify, when we are speaking of the influence of social media
on any political or social related movements, we do not refer to them neither as the
cause nor the consequence, which has seemed to be a common problem throughout
most of the analysis of these events by several authors, we refer to them as what they
are: marketing channels commercializing ideas and sometimes branding individuals
as the impellers of these ideas.
Social media gave the population the means to go from being passive recipients to
proactive participants in the country’s present and future. Modern day citizens want
to be involved in the decision making process of their countries, but also challenge
and question the information being transmitted by traditional media sources and
digital marketing channels allow them to do just that.
Results and discussion
We must consider that for there to be a previous stage to in-person engagement, how
will people get to know the product, service or in this case the candidate and what it
represents if they don’t come to or at least watch this event? Yes, it’s important but,
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