President Obama Engages Bloggers
July 21, 2009 | Written by Yan Shikhvarger
It was interesting recently to see the President getting down to Social Media basics and conducting a blogger conference call. The President is currently in a situation that any organization/executive can understand. He is trying to build awareness/grassroots support for a tough issue (Healthcare reform) and respond to damaging messages being spread by opponents.
This conference call had all the classic elements: poor sound quality, audible typing into the microphone, and long blocks of hard-to-follow dialogue. However, overall the effect of galvanizing support and getting the message across to the influentials worked: it resulted in on-message coverage from all the bloggers. Granted, this is the actual President of the United States speaking to bloggers so they are likely to pay attention; nevertheless, there are important lessons here. This was a high level executive making time to actually speak to bloggers and make relationships. Not many CEOs do that. The element of research was also present as these were progressive/liberal leaning bloggers that would almost certainly be receptive to the President’s message. This research element of understanding a blogger position before outreach cannot be underestimated. Bloggers are the new journalists and need to be treated accordingly. It is nice to see these basic tactics being practiced by President Obama.
See sample coverage and listen to the call here
More from RFI Studios
- Getting Bloggers to Blog – Left Brain
- ROI Modeling – Left Brain
- Pajama bloggers professionalize – Left Brain
- Keeping Content Fresh – Left Brain
- Print obsolete? – Left Brain
Tags: blogger outreach
Comments (1)
December 14th, 2009 at 12:33 am Posted by Michelle Ma
Many CEOs are more favorable in person and less so on digital media.
The President of the United States engages easily with the cameras.
Many great CEOs are dismayed and rather ashamed. Their very support and love for the companies they stand for frequently forces them to stand aside and try to allow someone else to speak for them.
Post Your Comment
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)