Can Rudd cash in on the Obama effect?
Can Kevin Rudd’s appointment of Obama’s digital team have an actual impact on the forthcoming election? In a piece that first appeared in Encore, Rachel Mulholland looks at the likelihood.
Rudd’s decision to hire Obama’s digital SWAT team has upped the social media stakes in the forthcoming election. But will this have a tangible impact on the polls? Obama’s social media big guns will likely give Rudd an edge with young Australians; something he’s worked hard to build since before the ‘07 election.
While social media is not just the domain of youth in Australia, 18-to-34 year olds dominate the most active sites and, as the first to adopt each platform, have set the rules of social behaviour. Thus, ‘social cred’ gained through social media wins will have more influence on the political decision making of younger Australians. Social media is like the tabloid press in that it thrives on high emotion. Rudd’s newly appointed digital gurus, keenly aware of this fact, will play to powerful emotions like mirth and indignation to achieve online “virality” (the definition of social cred). This, coupled with real-time marketing – the latest infatuation of businesses around the world – will likely be central to Labor’s social media strategy.
We can expect to see an increase in real-time combative campaigning, like YouTube, Instagram, Vine videos and blogs that ridicule or attack the opposition by latching on to any gaffes. Insights from the Obama campaign will be invaluable here.
One fundamental difference though, as outlined by Obama’s digital team themselves, is that the majority of their effort went into getting people to actually vote. With compulsory voting in Australia, the objectives are quite different
Great article rach.!!
See: how much spin and PR can we put on this guy to cover-up what a total disaster he is….
I don’t blame him for trying to up the social media campaign, considering that Murdoch has upped the Traditional media campaign.
This comes not longer after Murdoch flies in and appoints “Col Pot” to the editorial team to dig as much dirt as he can on Rudd..
Total disaster Bruce? I don’t want to vote for either of them (its a shame Australia has compulsory voting) – and I’ve traditionally voted Liberal – but the only disaster in Australian politics over the last 5 years has been Tony Abbott as Opposition Leader.
He has single handedly taken politics in the country to a new low and destroyed the viability of the Liberal party as an economic thought-leader.
It’ll be interesting to see how Labor use this new Digital talent – they’ll need it with the onslaught they have been, and will continue to get from the Murdoch press.
Rachel Mulholland has written a very nice article here.
Prime Minister Rudd needs all the boost he can muster, he is a very unpopular man with an even more unpopular party. He is playing every smarmy, smiling, nice guy trick he can bring to the fight, because he has very little to recommend him as a charismatic leader.
The use of the Obama team and effect, is a mark of Rudd’s determination to be the top man, he’s kissing babies, promising paradise and patting people on the head right now because he needs votes, if he gets enough of them, he will no longer need you to vote for him, then it will be our time to pay; paying will not be a pleasant experience, but Rudd won’t care two hoots about that.
Great article, but is the Obama digital team really here?
Apart from the data and the voter registrations et al. The Obama campaign focussed on creating content worth spreading. They made memes, and they had the huge win with the Romney 47% of the country in on welfare moment.
Rudd has yet to say anything worth spreading, Abbott is scared to say anything in case it ends up ion social media and then made a gaff that was funny but won’t matter.
Until both parties focus on being clear about their offering we’ll have nothing to share and the real impact will be minimal because ail a kinda 50/50 split they are either talking to the converted or to people who will never convert.
Currently we have both parties claiming – we’re for jobs and families.