The future of Obama’s social network

last updated 8 January 2015

Barack Obama’s “numbers border on unbelievable,” said Michael Bush in Advertising Age online. In two years of campaigning, his online and text-messaging marketing and outreach effort drew in 3 million willing “agents of change” and almost $750 million in donations. And as crucial as this unprecedented social network was in getting Obama elected, it could be “even more important during his presidency,” if he can figure out how to harness it.

Some strategists “believe that the White House Web site will transform into a social network,” said Farhad Manjoo in Slate, “a kind of Facebook for citizens,” geared toward passing Obama’s agenda. That would give him a very powerful bully pulpit—but only if his “Web coalition” doesn’t splinter or fizzle in the face of actual policy goals.