Social media use by Barack Obama

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Barack Obama won the 2008 United States presidential election on November 4, 2008. During his campaign, he became the first presidential candidate of a major party to utilize social networking sites, as podcasting, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube, to expand and engage his audience of supporters and donors.^[1]

Obama's adoption of social media for political campaigning has since been compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy's adoption of the radio and television media, respectively, in the history of communication between the White House and the American public. For this reason, Obama has been dubbed by some as "the first social media president."^[2]

In the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama had more "friends" on Facebook and Myspace and more "followers" on Twitter than his opponent John McCain.^[3]