How Twitter Elected President Obama

It's been the debate for several months and it just intensified over the past few days. The 2008 Elections have been the only topic besides the financial mess anyone can talk about. Never before have I been so fixated on every graph, map or percentage point talked about on the news. The race was on and McCain vs. Obama were on the final stretch. Deep down I had a favorite but held back in the debates because I wasn't sure. I thought to myself, if Barack Obama becomes the President of the United States, we are going to see some big changes. That was his entire platform CHANGE. I wanted change, I need some change. But I wondered if the youth of America wanted the same change and if so would this be the time the younger generation takes a stand and does the deed of voting. My questions were answered and in pure GenX fashion, not only did the youth take a stand, they brought the fight to the ultimate platform, the internet.

How the internet changed the 2008 Elections.

People of all ages were fired up in these elections on both sides. But what impressed me the most was the overwhelming response online. The internet brought people all around the Nation together in one big debate and allowed for supporters to spread every bit and byte of information in realtime.

Welcome to Election by Twitter

I have been a Twitter addict for a long time. When they launched their Election page, I was amazed. Peoples updates in realtime scolling down my screen based on keywords. If I wanted to know what was being passed around about McCain I could, Obama, all right there. As of March 2008 users of Twitter in the totals of 1+Million with 3 MILLION messages being passed a day. With that many people sending updates and communication, the volume of updates including a Presidential candidate must have been a welcoming space for Twitter to test out this new feature.

I stopped relying on CNN, NPR and other mainstream news outlets for information. There were just too many places to look and you never knew if they would have any new information. Twitter became my primary media source. Twitter made receiving updated information on every subtopic and news story about everything in the election scroll before my very eyes.

Twitter connected a million people with opinions in one virtual room. Joining the conversation was easy and everyone got a say. I don't aggressively follow new people like others but somehow I increased my followers by about 15% just by discussing the election. Most people using Twitter are of a younger demographic for many reasons, so watching updates and following the information being passed around by my peers helped shape my position. Not only were my peers talking,  Barack Obama was sending updates from the campaign trail. Well, one of his people were sending updates. I don't think Obama was doing it himself.

http://www.twitterholic.com/

Connecting to the youth of America through the internet using social media tools like Twitter is new ground for Presidential candidates and Obama PWNED his competition. He has more followers on Twitter than ANYONE and it will take a miracle for anyone to get close to his 117,000 followers. John McCain only had 4,922 and I'll be interested to see if there as any further communication from him as time goes on. It would be in his best interests. This is a communication medium that if used wisely could be a call to action from a President unlike anything known. With a market potential like this Obama could move mountains if he asked. Coverage like this is something marketeers would kill for.

Twitter evolution

With Twitters open API and the myriad of websites that tap into it like my personal favorite Monitter, getting information I am looking for from the people around me on any topic is seamless.

The business applications of Twitter are only scratching the surface. Mostly being used to broadcast snippets of information or quick updates. I am excited to see what happens with Twitter next. I can think of a few applications in a corporate environment that would make passing important information easy and easily digestable. It's no wonder why Twitter is one of the fastest growing communication tools of my time. I say next time around we Vote Twitter for President.