Posted on 08/01/2009 10:18:57 AM PDT by Son House
Excerpted from Yes We Did! An inside look at how social media built the Obama brand (New Riders)
Obama's official social network, my.barackobama.com, was at the heart of the campaign’s new media strategy. Affectionately referred to internally as MyBO, the site allowed users to create events, exchange information, raise funds, and connect with voters in their area. MyBO was the digital home base from which the campaign could mobilize its army of supporters. Creating an account required an email address and a password. Users didn’t even have to confirm their email address. This was done to make the sign-up process as fast and easy as possible. The drawback of this technique was that people could create accounts using fake email addresses with the sole intent of posting negative comments, a frequent occurrence requiring constant monitoring by the MyBO team. Online trolls, people who joined the community only to disrupt and insult members, were usually reported to online community managers within minutes and removed from the site. Over the course of the campaign, over three million people would create an account on MyBO and use the site’s tools to organize for Obama. Chris Hughes, Director of Online Organizing, was fascinated by the challenge of building a political social network. “As great as Barack is, if the campaign hadn’t been constituted in this idea of investing in our everyday supporters and helping them organize among themselves, I wouldn’t have been as excited about the job,” he said. One of Facebook’s co-founders, Hughes left his role leading product development to join the campaign in Chicago. Armed with Facebook’s communitybuilding expertise, he applied the same principles to grow MyBO: Keep it real and keep it local. MyBO was built to strengthen existing connections with neighbors. Hughes understood that the primary function of MyBO was to enable supporters to reach each other and form their own connections. The MyBO team wanted to ensure that the online infrastructure would translate into an on-the-ground army that would help solicit votes. Creating a sense of community was essential to MyBO’s success, and campaign staff made a consistent effort to foster a supportive online atmosphere by providing plenty of resources to help users get the most out of the site. Videos offered a step-by-step tutorial on how to use each of the online tools, and a downloadable host guide helped organizers plan the perfect event from beginning to end. Campaign staff hosted weekly conference calls with MyBO members to exchange tips and insights about using the online tools. The team phoned hosts who had used MyBO to organize an event to offer support and advice. They often called back after the event as well, to make sure that everything had gone smoothly and to ask for feedback. This was one of the most rewarding parts of my own volunteer responsibilities. I loved connecting with real people and hearing the excitement in their voices when they heard that I was calling from National Headquarters to thank them for their efforts. “We’re fired up and ready to go,” was an oft-repeated phrase. Their enthusiasm often buoyed my own spirits, especially when working twelve-hour days.
Fundraising Each MyBO user could create a personal fundraising page, which included a thermometer graphic that tracked his or her progress. The page was customizable: users could articulate in their own words why supporting Barack was important to them. The personal fundraising page also came with a customized URL and embed code that could be placed in webpages and emails. This created a new way for the campaign to raise money because it didn’t focus on supporting a candidate, but created an opportunity for friends and family to support each other in order to reach personal fundraising goals. Instead of a stranger cold-calling to ask for a donation of five or ten dollars, it was your neighbor or friend who was raising money because she believed Barack would end the war in Iraq and bring her son back home. This made donating more personal and meaningful because in addition to supporting the campaign, your funds were providing a direct benefit to someone you know. Over the course of the campaign, 70,000 MyBO personal fundraising pages collected more than $35 million for the campaign.
Incite the Right Actions: The Activity Index To keep supporters motivated and engaged, the Obama team had to make sure MyBO users felt they were making a difference in the campaign. Originally, MyBO contained a point system that assigned a value for various activities; a phone call was worth three points, making a donation was worth fifteen. A single cumulative score was calculated and displayed on a user’s profile, reflecting their rank within the site. Members were ranked against each other and could lose their standing if another member accumulated more points. The idea was to mobilize voters by allowing them to directly measure their impact on the campaign through their organizing efforts. However, it quickly became evident to Chris Hughes, Director of Online Organizing, that certain people were trying to take advantage of the system. “From the start, the emphasis was on quantifying an activist’s contribution to the campaign, not on encouraging people to rack up points for the sake of racking up points,” he wrote on the Obama official blog in August 2008. “For some people, this wasn’t always clear.” That same month, MyBO rolled out a simpler way for users to track their involvement, a feature called the activity index. Instead of listing a score, the index clearly specified the types of activities a user engaged in: how many people they phoned, how many events they attended, and so on. The index rated the user’s activity level on a scale of one to ten (one being least active, ten being most active), but there was a twist: it calculated the rating based only on recent activities.
This meant that users had to keep participating in order to maintain their rating. “The more work you’ve done recently, the higher the number will be,” Hughes explained on the Obama blog. This encouraged sustained behavior, ensuring a continued stream of activity. In addition, the activity breakdown was publicly visible to other members in the community, further motivating people to participate. By placing more value on offline activities (hosting an event was worth fifteen points compared to three points for joining a group), the campaign also acted on its strategy of “offline action,” rewarding people for mobilizing in the real world. The index became an accurate and efficient way of segmenting the community based on activity level. Users who achieved a certain rating out of ten were given access to special resources, such as training videos on how to maximize the use of the online tools. It also helped state field organizers spot highly motivated users in their area who could be recruited to join the campaign in a more formal capacity, such as becoming a neighborhood leader or phonebank organizer. It made it easy to identify supporters who were more willing to engage with the campaign, without excluding those who wanted to get involved on a lesser scale. Membership became a continuum on which every supporter could find his or her own sweet spot. The index was also applied to entire groups, so that anyone could see how active an entire membership was at a glance. Leverage Creativity Groups MyBO groups allowed users to quickly and easily connect with other voters who shared similar interests. Groups ranged from people with the same occupations (Electricians for Obama), to location (Texas for Obama), to demographics (Women for Obama). Groups were given their own homepage, complete with a blog, directory, electronic mailing list, a collective activity index, and a group fundraising meter. By the end of the campaign over 35,000 groups were created by volunteers. Not all groups were focused solely on fundraising or organizing; some were used as a way to send a message to the Obama campaign. The most notable of these was one of the largest MyBO groups, made up of members who opposed the senator’s stance on an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The bill would grant the president more leeway to spy on citizens’ private communications and would grant immunity to telephone companies who were accused of illegal surveillance. Obama had originally stated that he opposed modernizing FISA. In June 2008, he released a statement saying that he would support the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 being considered by the House of Representatives, but that he would try to remove the retroactive legal immunity part before it came to the Senate floor. A few months later he changed his stance and supported the modernization of the bill, including the retroactive legal immunity. His support of the bill angered many community members on MyBO and a group was formed in June 2008 called “Senator Obama, Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity—Get FISA Right.” It grew to several thousand people and quickly became one of the largest groups on MyBO. Many speculated about what the official response would be, if any, and how the senator’s progressive campaign would respond to voices of dissent within their own community. On July 3, 2008, New Media Director Joe Rospars posted an offi cial response from Obama on the site’s official blog. In a demonstration of the site’s effectiveness in getting Obama’s attention, an official statement was released addressed directly to those who had taken issue with his stance. Obama took the time to explain the reasoning behind his position and acknowledged the impact of the MyBO community, saying, “Now, I understand why some of you feel differently about the current bill, and I’m happy to take my lumps on this site and elsewhere. For the truth is that your organizing, your activism and your passion is an important reason why this bill is better than previous versions.” He wrote, “No tool has been more important in focusing peoples’ attention on the abuses of executive power in this Administration than the active and sustained engagement of American citizens. That holds true not just on wiretapping, but on a range of issues where Washington has let the American people down.” Obama set the tone for future communications and interactions with community members saying, “I cannot promise to agree with you on every issue. But I do promise to listen to your concerns, take them seriously, and seek to earn your ongoing support to change the country.” He also outlined what he intended regarding FISA if he was elected, promising to have his attorney general “conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and to make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future.” Once again, his actions reaffirmed the campaign’s message of hope and change, while maintaining transparency about why he was voting for the bill. The new media team took an extra step. Joe Rospars announced that for thirty minutes following the post, three members of the policy team would be monitoring the comment sections to respond to any questions or concerns that readers might have. Deputy National Policy Director Danielle Gray, Senior Foreign Policy Advisor Denis McDonough, and Foreign Policy Advisor and Senior Speechwriter Ben Rhodes spent ninety minutes wading through over six hundred comments and participating in a dialogue with concerned supporters. The campaign made it clear that they were both listening to their supporters and willing to talk with them regarding any feedback they might have. This also shifted the conversation from complaining or protesting to constructively discussing the issue and learning about Obama’s reasons for voting the way that he did. Supporters who participated would then share this information with other members of the community who might have similar concerns.
Events The real spirit of the community could be seen in the more than 200,000 offline events organized through MyBO. The events feature gave community members a way to incorporate the qualities that Obama represented into their daily lives and to inject a personal touch to the campaign. In addition to traditional events such as phonebanks or neighborhood canvassing, MyBO members invented thousands of other creative ways to express their support. Events included everything from dinner parties and themed biking tours to art and fashion shows, comedy nights, and local movie premiers. The community’s actions embodied the Obama brand in a way that transcended marketing and public relations initiatives. In January 2008, two Yale University students launched a venture called Obama Works. In a column in the Yale Daily News, Justin Kosslyn and David Manners-Weber asked, “What if a portion of the grassroots campaign were dedicated to visible public service projects?” In other words, how could MyBO users demonstrate through actions the values of the Obama brand within communities across America? Their answer: organized community service where Obama supporters could do good while taking part in events that represented the campaign’s values. The activities would have to be simple enough to be easily implemented anywhere. They suggested three types of events: Neighborhood cleanups, charity runs, and various smallscale local projects. “Residents driving through town squares and walking through local parks would find groups of enthusiastic Obama volunteers picking up cigarette butts and candy wrappers,” they wrote. They also suggested a five-kilometer charity run to support local families and projects ranging from “re-tiling the bathroom in a local women’s shelter to distributing children’s books from the local book bank.” The goal was to rebuild the American public’s trust in politicians through reputation and a track record of civic service and to demonstrate that through grassroots organizing, big changes can take place. Kosslyn and Manners-Weber called their community service acts “Obama Works.” News of their work quickly spread on MyBO and soon supporters in other areas started organizing their own events. Local chapters were soon established across the country. The Minneapolis chapter boasted over forty members who organized clean-ups of local parks and streets. The story was picked up by the media, giving excellent press coverage to the campaign.
BarackFest (Breakfast) Since March 2007, Dan of Ft. Collins, Colorado, has been using the power of breakfast to bring people together. During the campaign, on the first Sunday of the month he served fresh omelets, crepes, stratas, and pancakes to supporters who gathered to trade campaign experiences and personal stories. Each event raised between $200 and $500.
Barack Birthday Bashes In Montara, California, eighty people gathered to celebrate Barack’s birthday. Festivities included a birthday cake, a huge cardboard cutout for photos, a large birthday card, and a list of forty-seven reasons to vote for Senator Obama. They also screened A&E’s Biography channel episode on Barack Obama. After the fun, partygoers recruited local volunteers and canvassed Spanish-speaking voters in New Mexico.
Soul Line Dancers Over 60 dancers wearing “Soul Line Dancers for Obama” shirts busted out their best dance moves on the streets of Oakland, California. Many residents out for a stroll past the Lake Merritt Columns joined in the fun. The group also set up a table for donations and new voter registrations.
Basement Bhangra South Asians for Obama in co-operation with Obama NYC, Latinos for Obama, Asian Americans for Obama, Queens County for Obama, and Generation Obama sponsored “Basement Bhangra,” an Indian dance party that educated voters about Obama’s positions on various key issues. Over 400 people showed up for the event in New York City and danced the night away.
User Blogs Each MyBO account included a blog where supporters could post about their experiences and thoughts throughout the race. The blogs were a great way to share information and personal stories, and helped connect Obama supporters to each other. It gave supporters like Maria from Missoula, Montana, a platform to have their voices heard. Maria had become an Obama supporter in 2005, after stumbling on a keynote made by the senator to Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE). Having recently lost her daughter to the medical condition, she used her MyBO blog in early 2007 to express how Obama’s words had “comforted me during a most painful time in my life.” Maria had already knocked on doors and made phone calls on behalf of Barack but she wanted to do more. She came up with an innovative idea that combined her love of food with her belief in hope, change, and action. She spent the month of April 2008 connecting with Obama supporters on MyBO and compiling 160 stories and recipes, which she assembled into an online cookbook. She posted the entire collection on her MyBO blog and called it “The Obama Family Cookbook,” as a reflection of the camaraderie and friendship that was felt on the site. Anyone could access the content for free, but Maria asked voters to donate what they could. She raised $2,000 through online donations but didn’t stop there. “This is a real grassroots cookbook, like the old-fashioned-but-fun church and school cookbooks of yore,” she posted on her blog. She collected recipes from all fifty states, as well as England, the Virgin Islands, and the Netherlands. The cookbook would be a great keepsake of “the experience we’ve had in creating our Obama family.” The cookbook is dedicated to her daughter, Carrie. I asked Maria about her experiences with the campaign. “I was a part of the campaign—as were millions of others just like me,” she said. “I had never worked on a political campaign or donated any money to one. I felt that it was my campaign, our campaign, and that I was (and still am) working for the common good. I felt ‘empowered’ for the first time in my life.” Obama’s message of being our brother’s keeper resonated with her. “That is the kind of world I want for my children.”
If Obama was right, they wouldn't have to work so hard at convincing others he was doing right.
Instead of a stranger cold-calling to ask for a donation of five or ten dollars, it was your neighbor or friend who was raising money because she believed Barack would end the war in Iraq and bring her son back home. This made donating more personal and meaningful
.
Means nothing now
From the B. Hussein Blog section, and there’s much more,
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog
The President’s Weekly Address: This Economic Storm Will Pass
[read the comments to understand some of the dementia]
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/obamaforamerica/gGMPpq/commentary
[What moveon.org conference call Monday night?]
Especially when Obama was illegally taking money donations from peoples bank accounts. Gives it a whole new meaning.
I signed up and “volunteered” several times to work tables etc...never intended to show...lol.
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