Being a Canadian, I can’t think of ever being so interested in and passionate about U.S politics as in the last 4 years; Clearly I’m not alone. Today’s Presidential Inauguration Ceremony was not only attended in person by over 2 Million people (the most to date), but also set unprecedented records for LIVE video streaming viewership and online discussion (just track hashtag #inaug09 on Twitter).
We have all heard how Barack Obama leveraged social media during the campaign (just Google it…). Politicians and campaign planners will surely continue analyzing his every move for years to come. What interests me however, is not what he did to get to where he is today, but rather what he plans on doing starting tomorrow. More specifically, I’m interested as to how President Obama will continue to leverage social media under White House restrictions.
I truly believe 100%, that he genuinely wants to interact and engage with U.S citizens more than any prior President. He is not resistant to new communications channels (and the modern technology that enables them), but rather embraces them with excitement. He understands the democratization of the web, the importance of citizen empowerment and the power of the individual (in aggregate) more than anyone. In fact, he has already demonstrated it as President. Today, just as Barack was being sworn in, the new White House Web Site was launched.
Of course, what kind of President would have a website without also having an Official Blog (complete with an RSS feed), brilliantly launched and introduced during his swearing in. It has already been updated 4 times , which is a clear indication that the contributing bloggers don’t have to go through the stale, traditional, communications approval process that is still required (and rightly so…) for other media channels.
The Blog will be run by Macon Philips, who is the Director of New Media at the White House. He has introduced himself as one of the main contributors. This kind of disclosure is crucial towards the success of a government/political blog. People want to know the person behind the words, they want to put a human face (and voice) to the Ivory Tower world of the White House. This is their ticket in. I can guarantee that Barack Obama had a lot to do with this and will surely be contributing in one way or another, even with the weight of the world now on his shoulders.
Congratulations to the entire Obama team on a job well done! Most importantly, congrats to you, President Barack H. Obama. This is one of the first times in my life, that I am truly proud to be a northern neighbour of the United States of America. Let’s hope our Canadian political system will one day undergo similar reform/rebirth so that we are able to boost our abysmal voter turnout percentage.
I see that the Prersident is meeting withe the heads of the large (too large to fail) banks. Why does he not meet with represenatives of the smaller community banks. The ones that, for the ost part did not require or ask for a bailout. Meeting with the head of the Independent Bankers Association of America or the heads of State Banking Associations. But listen to the heartbeat of the American people.
Good point Wilfred. Although I just heard that now he is being criticized for holding too many press conferences/meetings and appearing in public as if he has lots of time on his hands…sad, sad comments. People seem to think that unless you are sitting behind a desk you are not working.
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I have frequented your port before. The more I visit, the more I keep coming back! 🙂