Social Media: It's a Political Battle

Tuesday. It's not quite half way through the week, nor is it the absolute beginning. Usually my Tuesdays are pretty dull. I go to class, I come home, I nap, I think about doing school work - pretty average if you ask me. Although it may be a dull day for me, there's never a dull moment in the social media world. Today, I decided to examine the political stories unfolding on social media websites. 


Many writers and bloggers have coined the next US Presidential Election as a social media battle. In 2008, social media networks were not as developed and widely used as they are today. Facebook has over 500 million users and Twitter is a little behind with 175 million users. Either way, there is no denying that millions of people are connected and sharing thoughts every day over one of these social mediums.

On Monday President Obama released his 2012 re-election campaign. However, this time it was in the form of a video that went viral.  I say it went viral because within a matter of minutes my Facebook newsfeed was bombarded with "I'm In!" likes for Obama. Obama's video release was an excellent and quick way to spread the word about his re-election. The amazing thing about social media is that each time someone liked the video, they could share it, retweet it, email it, and spread it to hundreds of people with the click of a button.

Shortly after Obama's video release, Republicans were prepared to release their rebuttal video. Whereas Obama wanted "change" potential GOP candidate, Tim Pawlenty (R- Minnesota) is telling us it's time for a "new direction." (Note to all politicians: I'm kind of sick of these generic "change" "directions" "it begins here" mottos.) Pawlenty's video is the exact opposite of Obama's. Instead of smiling faces talking about how excited they are for the election, the GOP video uses brisk, rough images of gas prices and financial crisis to depict the current state of America. If you haven't seen the price of gasoline, I recommend just staying indoors. The video definitely uses "shock value" to convey the importance of this next election.

Surely, the political battle can't stop here. Politicians took their thoughts and ideas to Twitter. Republican Mitt Romney called out Barack Obama saying, "@barackobama I look forward to hearing details on your jobs plan, as are 14m unemployed Americans.”

It will be important to monitor the political chatter during the next few days as million watch and share political videos. As we continue to share our personal thoughts and opinions through social media, the use of tags, retweets, and other tools will help politicians keep an eye on how the American public is feeling. #imready