Politics 2.0: Barack Obama Goes Completely Social Media

Presidential candidate Barack Obama turned his site into a social network this weekend, hoping to create a venue for his supporters to connect. Obama is already leveraging social media using Facebook, MySpace and Flickr.

Users may organize fundraising, create events, find Obama events near you, build a network of friends, send messages, join groups and write a blog about how you’re helping Obama, or how you feel about the Obama campaign. Groups are the way to connect to strangers on the network, since there doesn’t seem to be a browse feature (you can, however, search by name or zipcode). In many regards, it’s more like Facebook than MySpace or YouTube - simple, text-based and focused on connecting with people you know or those around you.



AKI COMMENT: And I like his logo, too! Beats that same shiesty wavy flag graphic (or worse) that politicians have been retreading for 30 years. A simple and refreshing icon harkens to a new day dawning in politics. Though the letter "O" is somewhat predictable (probably the client call), this is played in a rather clever and unexpected treatment. Obama gets my consideration just for adopting an intriguing design ethic that speaks more than "politics as usual". Funny how most politicians just don't consider graphic identity as a relevant and influential piece of the presentation and package. For all intents and purposes, the candidates graphic identity is the very start of the conversation between voter and candidate.


via Mashable.com