Politics & Social Media

During the 2008 elections in the United States, Barack Obama and his team used Social Media to raise funds, get their message out, and engage a whole new group of people who in the past never would have voted.

Political consultants across Canada and the United States have embraced social media as another form of getting their candidates message out to a whole new group of voters who would not normally vote. A friend of mine, Chris Young has a business which helps people and businesses set-up on the social media networks, and explains how to best use the tools available to promote yourself and your business.
Click on the link to learn more http://www.b2cy.com/

Ok, now that I've given Chris a plug, back to the issue at hand.

Having ran both my election campaigns, it was not until this past Municipal election, that I started to embrace social media in getting my message out. Yes I did the sign thing, I knocked on doors, I attended the candidate meetings, did flyers, and had a website. I also used Twitter, and Facebook. During the Provincial Election in 2007 I used Youtube, but did not use it during the Municipal election.

Looking at how other campaigns were managed, not only during the Municipal elections in Ontario, but the mid-terms in the United States, more and more candidates are starting to use social media. Political campaigns will still be ran the old fashion way, but it will be those candidates and campaigns that embrace the tools of social media in the future that can, and will change the political landscape. I again go back to the success that President Obama achieved in 2008 as a prime example of how using social media, can get you elected. When you look at the breakdown of who voted for Obama it was not seniors, but it was younger voters in the ago group of 18 to 35, with some of them never voting before. He used social media to create a buzz about himself, he used social media to send daily message via twitter and facebook to the millions of people who signed up to receive these messages. He asked for donations, not a hundred dollars here, or two hundred dollars there, but just five dollars, and he was able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from the average citizen.

In 2011, the people of Ontario will be heading to the polls in October to elect their MPP's. Today most nominated candidates have already started to use social media to get their message and their party's message out to the voting public. Also in 2011 Canadians might also face a Federal election most likely in the spring. Again nominated Federal candidates have also started to use social media to get their message out. If you were to ask a candidate or political party some 10 years ago if they would use the internet to get their message out, most would say that they only use the internet to send e-mails, or they would have a website, and that was it.

I encourage you to use social media regardless if you are running for public office, as it's an excellent networking tool that if done correctly can expand your business, and it's an excellent way to meet new friends, and connect with family members from all over the Earth.