August 11, 2008
Presdential hopeful, Barack Obama, has cut out the middleman -- the press -- and gone straight to the public with his campaign's latest announcement that his decision for VP will be delivered to people who have signed up for his text messaging program first.
The Associated Press reports: "Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is close to choosing
a running mate, and the first person to find out could be you. In an e-mail to supporters, Obama's campaign manager said voters can sign up to receive an e-mail or a text message "the moment" he makes his decision." The candidate's announement also went out via Twitter, a 140-character microblogging service that is distributed through text, IM, and on the Web.
This move, "...also gives the Obama campaign one more way to differentiate itself
technologically from its Republican opponent; Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) doesn't have a text messaging program," according to The Washington Post.
Comments | 5 Total
August 11, 2008 at 4:47pm by Brendan Collins
Obama knows what works in politics: making the voter feel directly connected to the elected official. The era of shaking hands, kissing babies, and little American flags is gone - unless, of course, that baby immediately uploads pictures of the event to Flickr. This is a brilliant move by the Obama people, one designed to galvanize a somewhat stagnant campaign with a personalized thank-you text to supporters.
August 11, 2008 at 8:05pm by Austin Chu
I totally agree. I think traditional media and news releases are shifting. Obama has social media nailed. He knows how to reach out the different supporters. He knows most of the Gen-Y crowd are on their cell phones more than older generations. Reach out to us, and you got yourself a presidency.
August 11, 2008 at 10:17pm by Jim Dugan
It was humourous on CNN this afternoon when the commentator was ending his report and the moderator asked about Barack and his VP choice and the commentator said "as to his selection, Obama said he was going to announce it via text message, whatever that is, and ..." He was serious! Scary!
August 12, 2008 at 12:13pm by Jack McCart
I would hope that Obama would have to do more than just be technically adept to earn votes. Maybe something like concrete plans and ideas that are more than just soundbytes.
August 12, 2008 at 11:26pm by Kevin Dugan
This is a gimmick. The Vatican issues their reporters Blackberries so they know when they are getting Vatican news. It has nothing to do with the format...press release or carrier pigeon, sms or smoke signal.
The key is if there is actually news. Otherwise it is just all noise we do not need.
Do you actually think Obama would need to issue a press release about his VP?! Something tells me that will get picked up without that piece of background material.