ocial networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook allow us to stay connected with friends and relatives, find new friends with similar interests and keep up with current events. With the upcoming 2008 presidential election, social networking sites are serving a new purpose: connecting individuals, young and old, to the presidential candidates.

This current presidential election is the first to utilize social networking sites as a tool for campaigning. This instrument has allowed more individuals to become informed about politics forever changing the structure of political campaigns.

At the forefront of the new media strategy is Senator Barack Obama’s campaign with the creation of the social networking site MyBarackObama.com. Here, Obama supporters can join local groups, learn about the campaign and create events raising money for the campaign in their local area.

Heading up MyBarackObamacom is Chris Hughes, one of four Facebook founders. In early 2007, Hughes made the decision to leave Facebook and moved to Chicago in order to work on Obama’s new-media campaign.

Hughes saw the potential that social networks had to make an impact on campaigning. He felt that the Internet could be used to bring voters together in the same way that Facebook is used to connect individuals.

Seeing the effectiveness of the Obama campaign strategy led other Politian’s to use similar approach. The campaign for Senator John McCain adopted a similar social networking platform on JohnMcCain.com called McCainSpace. On this page, McCain supporters can create profiles, share videos and find ways to contribute to McCain’s efforts.

With so much importance placed on new-media campaign strategies the question arises about how the use of these tactics influences the success of the campaigns. Hilary Clinton’s initial approach to web campaigning significantly differed from Obama’s. Clinton relied upon traditional methods of Internet campaigning, such as launching an official campaign website with information about her policies, relying on the news to spread.

This concept, although effective in the past, did not adapt quickly enough to the changes occurring in the form of the new media strategies of the present election. Eventually Clinton’s campaign created a networking site similar to that of Obama’s yet some analysts say that Clinton’s initial strategy contributed to her failing to receive the Democratic nomination.
Both Obama and McCain have used their new-media sites to assist in generating funds for their campaigns’. Obama in particular, has been extremely successful raising over 600 million dollars throughout the duration of his campaign.

By Dyani Vanderhorst