If everyone else is doing it, why not White House officials?
Ok, so peer pressure really has nothing to do with it. The Obama administration embraced the power and reach of social media even during the electoral process.
As the Obama campaign’s marketing strategies are being used as the example of how social media can be used as an advertising and pr tool, the President continues his quest to move government into the 21st century.
As described in the Time magazine story, “Twittering in Obamaland: The Social-Network Administration,” the President (more likely his uber-savvy public relations staff) is encouraging all White House administrators to embrace social networking as a means of communication. Government agencies now can be found on YouTube, Flickr and Facebook, if they can get the pages to load through the White House spam filters.
The public nature of the sites could be seen as a more toward a more transparent government. It also could be viewed as the government’s way of setting the public’s agenda, one that leans in their favor. Either way, it gives the public a direct line to someone within the organization. But who? Hopefully the people don’t immediately praise the fall of the gatekeeper before they determine exactly who is updating these government statuses.
Leave a Reply