The lesson: Obama won the internet because his head of Digital was “brave enough to just let people who know their shit do what they do.”
Meet the Mind Behind Barack Obama’s Online Persona
You’ve most definitely seen it by now. Michelle Obama, wearing a red-and-white checkered dress, stands with her back to the camera. Her arms are wrapped around her husband, the hints of a smile lingering on the edges of his lips. “Four more years,” reads the text, which was posted on the Obama campaign’s social media accounts around 11:15pm on election night‚ just as it became clear the president had won a second term.
The photo, taken by campaign photographer Scout Tufankjian just a few days into the job, pretty much won the internet: 816,000 retweets, the most likes ever on Facebook; thousands of reblogs on Tumblr. And yet it wasn’t chosen by the president’s press secretary, or even a senior-level operative, but by 31-year-old Laura Olin, a social media strategist who’d been up since 4am. For the first time since the campaign ended, she talked to Tumblr, in partnership with The Daily Beast, about what it’s like being the voice of the President — where millions of people, and a ravenous press, await your every grammatical error.
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Thank you, all of you, for accompanying us on this adventure Tumbling the 2012 US election. Thank you for following, reading, sharing, engaging, criticizing, submitting, and, most of all, thank you for voting.
Thank you to all of our Convention bloggers (Amina, Bobby, Jason, Jayel, Meg, and Tag) and our guest editors (inothernews, hipsterlibertarian, Blackbook, MissADelgado, Mike, Peter, Caitlyn, Phillip, Matt, Megan, Cord, LA Liberty, Ari, ShortFormBlog, and The Guardian’s Adam Gabatt).
It’s been real. But we are now officially in withdrawal. When we come-to, we’ll figure out where this blog goes next.
In the meantime, enjoy this thank-you GIF - in honor of what is easily our favorite reblog chain of the entire election season.
(via xkcd: Math)
Nate Silver may not be a witch, but it is (among other things) his night.
Infographic: How long Tumblr users waited at the polls
The amount of time 137 ShortFormBlog and Tumblr Election readers spent waiting at the polls to vote today. (We asked earlier tonight.) One unlucky person waited three and a half hours. :(
— Ernie @ ShortFormBlog
Source: shortformblog.com
This is significant, guys. That means YOU.
- Liba
Even in the direst of times, the passion and attention to our collective civic life finds space to breathe.Residents of Rockaway Beach, NY stand by a fire listening to the election on a radio.
For those of you at the polls today, how long did you wait?
I voted day-of, so it was slightly more complicated, but I was in and out within half an hour. I got there around 5:30 p.m. EST. — Ernie @ SFB
Threw this up on SFB a little bit ago, and dozens of people have already added their waiting times. Add yours. I might try to do something cool with this.
— Ernie @ ShortFormBlog
It’s a little early to know exactly what we can learn from social media metrics. I think the way we’ll be looking at this stuff will be very different in four years, in eight years, in twelve years. For right now, we’re kind of in an awkward adolescent age … we’re out of the classical innocent era of our youth where you could just call someone on the phone. But we’re not sure what the substitute for that is yet.
Source: election
Mitt Romney waves at supporters in Moon Township PA
Nice pic from Holly Bailey, on the road w Romney for Yahoo News. Romney voted from home this morning, before heading off to Ohio and Pennsylvania for last-minute campaign stops.
