Strategic Use and Impact of Social Media in the 2012 Elections

Strategic Use and Impact of Social Media in the 2012 Elections

The goal of the research is to find evidence of the use and impact of social media in U.S.'s 2012 presidential elections. This is because it was reported that President Obama won the elections because of the ground operation presented by volunteers of his elections' campaigns (CNN Wire 1). I chose this topic since reports in state media indicated that the Republican Party was heading in the pre-election polls, but in the end, the Democratic Party won due to the use of technological innovation (Edsall 1). An in depth analysis of the research problem intends to reveal that the presidential contest favored President Obama, for using social media. Social media is increasingly an easy, fast, and effective way for people to have personal contact through technology. The intention is to prove the political premise that the most effective means of getting people to vote is through personal contact. This research will prove that President's Obama won the race because his campaigns were organized and effectively made use of social media. The presidential campaigns using social media were able to create a strong ground operation, with many volunteers who had personal contact with potential voters. Moreover, President Obama's campaigns used the latest in technology and social media techniques, allowing him to defeat Romney, who was leading in the polls. The research should elicit evidence that will offer future election candidates social media techniques applicable in campaigns. It will also prove the political science theory that personal contact is the most effective means of get people to vote.

Methodology

The case study method is selected for this research, where an inquiry is made of various articles on the presidential election of 2012. This involves an interpretation of the statistics and political analysis of the presidential election to identify information on the use of social media. The research will evaluate articles that have particularly focused on the 2012 presidential election, the campaign strategy of President Obama and Mitt Romney, and the use of social media. The findings from the analysis made by these articles will provide an understanding of President Obama's use of social media and its effectiveness. The Case study method is selected for it is a powerful tool, with the advantage of focusing research on the case. This situates interpretations on the use of social media in the presidential election. The method also directs the research to focus on the differences in social media strategies between President Obama and Mitt Romney, and the impact of the use of social media on the results of the presidential election.

Analysis and Discussion

To solve the research problem, a case study of the presidential elections of 2012 is analyzed, along with a review of literature. The review of literature shows that political campaigns have taken the campaign battled online, as part of a broader effort to target specific voter population at critical moments in the campaign. Political advertising has begun spending on online advertisements and was estimated at $160 million by 2012, which is more than seven times the amount spent in 2008 (Schatz 1). After President Obama's spirited social media and online campaign in 2008 that gathered massive support from the young generation, campaigns have incorporated online sources apart from the traditional television and direct mail. Other online resources include videos, which have been identified as suitable for voter targeting. For example, Romney online videos flooded Hulu.com prior to the January 2012 primary. Schatz (2012) indicates that there is increased spending on online sites, since they reflect on the importance of campaigns, especially from internet sites and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook (1). This is because they not only assist campaign managers to raise money but they also energize potential voters and organize party supporters on the Election Day. Political campaigns are also using sites like YouTube and Hulu to run their television advertisements and videos online, to create an emotional connection with voters that do not watch regular television.

The findings indicate that online social media networks like Facebook can increase the voter turnout, particularly if they have evidence that their friends are also voting (Sifry 1). This conclusion was made by the U.C. San Diego research published in the Journal Nature, which indicates that a non-partisan message on Facebook calling for voters to get-out-the-vote increases voter turnout. The article by Sifry (2012) supports its claim with data from a study by Pew Internet & American Life Project (1). The project reveals that people with friends on social networks that regularly post on political content, are more likely to be involved politically or change their minds on a political issue. This research finds that the data is evidence that social media can influence people, their friends, and the friends of their friends to vote.

The data presented in Sifry's (2012) research, draws my interest for it is based on Pew Internet & American Life Project's research in collaboration with Facebook. The study sent a GoTv message at the top of the News Feed, with a link of local polling places with "I Voted" button. The results indicate that 2.08% of the users of Facebook, who received the message, were more likely to indicate they voted than those who read the informational message without a picture of their friends. These made up 20.04% and 17.96% of Facebook users. 0.4% of the users also indicate that they were more likely to vote, with more than 12 million users clicking on the "I Voted" button in 2010, compared to 5.4 million voters in 2008. The results of this data indicate that social media campaigns can elicit enhanced civic engagement in political matters since it rides of the power of social influence on friends. Social media has this effect on voters, since the site of the faces of their friends accompanying a campaign message contributes to the real-world effect of the message.

Social media is reported an effective campaign tool like the traditional television, billboard, and print advertisements. This is because social media has the proven capability of assisting parties and political managers gauge public opinion (Murphy 1). In addition, it is an easy and fast means of sharing videos and photographs of the candidate in action with their audience. Sifry (2012) indicates that social media has this capability since friends generate an additional 886,000 votes, with their close friends generating 559,000 votes. This research finds that friends do not have effect on validated voting, but they have a significant effect on the voting behavior of their friends.

The effectiveness of the social media campaigns was evident in the 2012 presidential elections in which President Obama won a second term. This is attributed to a strong ground operation that reached a wider population personally, managing to increase the voter turnout and swing undecided voters to the democratic side. Presidents Obama's campaign strategy was boosted by social media campaigns. For example, during the presidential debate at the University of Denver, Stephanie Cutter, Mitt Romney's deputy campaign manager commented, "We are getting bombed on Twitter" (Nagourney et al. 1). This statement supports evidence that early postings by journalists and political analysts, viewed as critical for the race presented a pro-Obama perception on Twitter. However, the 3rd October debate turned sour for the president following questions on the healthcare plan. To make a recovery, President Obama created a combative, contrite, and willingly recognized Mr. Romney in an attempt to prevent the loss of his legacy and signature achievement, the Healthcare plan. President Obama took up the challenge and created a campaign strategy that revolved on the voter.

The strategy used behavioral scientists to build a database of potential supporters from new voters and undecided voters. To understand this demographic group, President Obama's team methodically tracked the views of the voters through numerous telephone calls (Nagourney et al. 1). Through the social networks, President Obama was able to track and alter the nature of the electorate by making it younger and less white shifting voter allegiance from conservative lines. This comprised a large part President Obama's ground game following the tense presidential debate. President Obama was able to use the rule of personal contact to reach a demographic ground that swung the vote in his favor. According to Martin (2012), President Obama took advantage of a rapidly changing America and voters who are changing the political scene to adopt a more conservative learning Colorado, Florida, Virginia, and Nevada. President Obama was able to reach to individual voters on the ground and gather votes from swing and conservative states like Virginia and Colorado despite the poor economy and motivated opposition. Mitt Romney lost to President Obama, since the Republican Party was still whiter in a less white society with immigrant and minority communities, and more women and young voters. President Obama was able to reach the minority and immigrant community by adopting a one-on-one campaign strategy to reach as many potential voters as possible. One method the President used to reach this demographic group was the social media platforms.

Martin (2012) indicates that the campaigns were successful for President Obama won 2.5% points in 2008, in Florida by making out of the 8.7% unemployment rates (1). The polls indicate that this was possible because the state had 50,000 more African-Americans and 190,000 more Hispanics as compared to 2008 (1). The Republican Party did not carry out a thorough analysis of voter habits and demographic data. A white party failed to capture the growing minority and immigrant population in states like Florida (Martin 1). President Obama's ground operations not only included making personal contact, but also making demographic analysis, which assisted in identifying the correct population for a particular political message. This led President Obama to make a 20-point to 25 points margin lead in 2012 as compared to 2008 in Suburban Orlando's Osceola County, the heart of Hispanic immigrants. According to Brian Jones the Senior Adviser to Romney, the Obama campaign altered the nature of the electorate, and made it younger, less white, and created a portrait of a shifting voter allegiance (Nagourney et al. 1). The Republican Party acknowledges that President Obama's political campaign strategy indicated a power in operation that stunned Romney's aides the election night. This is because the aides saw for the first time voters they never knew existed in areas like Osceola County (Nagourney et al. 1). This is an indication of the impact of the personal contact of social media campaigns used by the President.

President Obama's campaign strategy also included the use of powerful political rhetoric that was able to reach to the issues in the society. The thousands of volunteers through personal telephone messages and social media outlets passed on this Rhetoric message. This was unlike Romney's campaign messages that consisted of verbal miscues, like commenting on 47%, Americans do not pay their income taxes in a fundraiser full of wealthy donors (Martin 2). Secondly, despite the numerous verbal miscues captured on media records, Romney did not make apologies for them. This was unlike President Obama, who took fault and indicated to his campaign team "it is all on me" for the scatting remarks to Romney during the October 3rd presidential debate (Sifry 1). Romney's remarks during his campaign speeches were not able to communicate with the population, let alone various demographic groups. The white veteran Republicans indicated that Romney's loss could be attributed to a base of class and personality (Martin 2). He was considered a socially awkward person, who could not relate and serve the needs of potential voters. This message was particularly amplified in social media sites that cited Romney's comments like "not from these parts" that made him untenable. Moreover, Romney unlike President Obama did not show the human side of him.

The two cases present this research with evidence that presidential campaigns cannot ignore the effect of social media and the internet. This is because social media allow people to express their views without the need for mainstream media. In effect, the impression of the voters of a particular candidate and their campaign message is shaped in social media as people discuss and analyze their views. President Obama succeeded in winning a second term since he took advantage of this aspect. His campaign strategy created a big-picture strategy of the president, his policies, his achievements, message, and family and capitalized on the media, especially social media to propagate the message to each voter in the nation. However, Mitt Romney had inherent challenges in his campaign strategy, which were compounded by campaign mistakes. His campaign strategy appears to have lacked a big-picture strategy that could explain how his work at Bain Capital mattered to his experienced or why he opposed Obama's bailout. President Obama's campaign and the super PAC had advertisements of Romney's Senate campaign in 1994, and his opposition to the auto rescue in 2009 (Martin 2). President Obama had made massive advertisement campaigns in the summer that attacked Romney's political and campaign promises. Despite the massive public advertisements on the two issues, Romney did not make a plan to present an explanation for the events in the presidential debates, in any public advertisement, or in the social media (Martin 2).

A review of the 2012 presidential results and the campaign era prior to the election indicate that President Obama won for his winning campaign strategy that targeted reaching each voter through either social media or mainstream media. This winning strategy saw him win a race where pre-election polls had indicated he was losing to the Republican opponent Mr. Romney. The review of literature and data from news articles and political reviews support the thesis that President Obama had better use and control of social media networks and was able to get new, undecided, and swing voters to vote. President Obama also used more advanced social media techniques that Romney. The result of the social media strategy was that 25 states tilted towards the President out of the 30 states polled in (Blow 1). It is indicated that the social media campaign was strong since it created a democratic coalition that enabled Obama to win. President Obama's messages and personal contact with voters was able to draw democratic African-Americans, liberal whites, and Hispanics, preventing his loss in more than half the states. His social media message "get-out-the-vote" operation saw a surge of Hispanic voters in many states like Nevada and New Mexico (Blow 1). In addition, the "get-out-the-vote" social media operation did not only elicit the votes of Hispanics but also increased the percentage of Black votes. Of importance was the ability of this message to increase the number of Asian-American voters by 11% in California, with more voting that African-Americans in California, Washington, and Oregon.

President Obama was also able to have the highest percentage of votes from whites in states with few minority voters like Maine. In Maine, 95% voters turned up with 57% voting for President Obama, indicating that the "get-out-the-vote" operation worked (Blow 1). This positive sentiment to the presidential election was also reflected in Massachusetts where eighty-six percent of the voters were white. Other states with minority voting population, where President Obama won were Iowa with 93% white, Connecticut 79%, Washington State 76%, Oregon 88%, and New Hampshire 93% (Blow 1). These statistics provide vital information to this research. The statistics prove that the campaign strategy adopted by President Obama was more effective than Mitt Romney's. This is because the statistics indicate that the social media campaign to get out the votes worked in favor of President Obama. The messages are said to be effective for not only did the African-American community vote for President Obama, but also in the 2012 elections, more Hispanic, Asian-Americans and Whites voted for him.

There is evidence for the case analysis of the presidential election of 2012, that though Romney was close to President Obama due to white republican voters, African-American and Hispanics were solidly democratic. The demographic trends indicate that the Republican Party grew out of the fact that the electorate every four years is 2% less white and 2% more minority (Edsall 1). Romney's campaign team oversight of this statistical fact was one of their strategic downfall. On the other hand, President Obama's ability to use demographic data to create a campaign strategy and campaign messages led to his win. This research finds that presidential candidates in the current America cannot overlook the changing demographic trends and population behavior.

The analysis of the results present with information to support the hypothesis that President Obama's campaign strategy, especially the use of social media was well structured, controlled, and planned than Romney's. This perspective is arrived at after reviewing the demographic statistics that indicate that the Hispanic and Asian-American population had increased as compared to a relatively low birth rate among Whites (Edsall 1). It is evident that President Obama's advantage over Romney's was his ability to reach demographic groups like the minorities, women, the young, educated and the middle class. His campaign message through various social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter tackled pertinent issues like the economy, healthcare, and unemployment. The main issue was the economy, which these voters did not completely make Obama accountable for the economic frustrations. This is unlike Romney's campaign messages, which failed to gather massive support, for he blamed Obama completely for the poor economic performance. According to People-Press (2012), 59% of voters indicated that the economy was an important issue, where 48% felt Obama could handle it better, while 49% felt Romney could (1). However, the survey results indicate that 53% blamed President Bush for the poor performance of the economy (People-Press 1). This is an indication of improved voter education on issues of policy creation and their effects across presidential terms. This research also finds that President Obama was able to use social media campaigns to convince voters to turn out in large numbers and support him in completing the work he begun in the first term. Lastly, president Obama also used technology and social media in grass-root politics prior to the main primaries and presidential election. This combination of target messaging, social media, personal contact allowed him to defeat Romney in a presidential election that appeared to close to call.