““Barack Obama Barack Obama Wants to be Your Wants to be Your

Friend”Friend”Presidents and Their Use of

Social Networking Sites

Leader: Gabriella Van den Heuvel

Article By: Jessi Hempel

2008

70% of the “Generation X” voters are on social networking sites

Obama is the only President to fully take advantage of Facebook’s possibilities

First time voters are educated about the candidates

Many Facebook groups allow the “Generation-X” voters to interact with the Presidential candidates

500 pages!

Word of Mouth

A familiar everyday activity for many

A side note…

No student group

The same picture for almost every group/pageNo videos on Facebook page

Do You Think This Affected the Presidential Results?

What Do You Think?“Generation X” voters are known for their lack of voting. Do you think that by Presidential Candidates creating Facebook accounts, “Generation X” voters were more excited/willing to go out and vote in the 2008 election?

What specific Facebook features do you believe are the most effective?

Did you use Facebook to gather information about Obama and/or McCain?

Works Cited

•Hempel, Jessi. (2007). Obama Wants to Be Your Friend. Business Week Online, 7-7. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete.

•Fisher, Patrick. (2008). The Age Gap: Evidence of a Realignment in U.S. Politics? Retrieved May 9th, 2008, from All Academic Inc. Web Site: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/3/8/5/1/pages238512-19.php

•Photo: Google Images: “Obama, Facebook”

•Photo: Facebook: Barack Obama

•Photo: Facebook: John McCain