Campaign managers gathered at Harvard last week to share insight. The proceedings of the Institute of Politics gathering went online today.
Paul Ryan Was "Highly Meme-able”
Obama Digital Director Teddy Goff proclaimed Paul Ryan "highly meme-able” when asked about his initial response to Romney selecting the Wisconsin congressman as his running-mate.
"Voters usually don’t hear what is trending on Twitter," Goff explained, talking about Ryan's speech at the GOP convention. "The Janesville [GM plant that shut down] did."
“He was the perfect object for social media in this election," Goff added.
Source: heygirlitspaulryan.tumblr.com
The Ryan Pick Helped Wisconsin Democrats Get Over Recall Loss
After Scott Walker retained his seat earlier this year, “our folks in Wisconsin were totally demoralized," said Jeremy Bird, Obama's National Field Director.
“It was the hardest state for me as a field director to go out and organize," he added.
But that all changed when Romney selected Paul Ryan.
“Paul Ryan re-galvanized all of our troops in Wisconsin," Bird said.
Image by Sara Stathas / Reuters
What Obama's Digital Operation Was Really About
Goff explained that more than 90% of the Obama e-mail list voted in 2008 — the challenge in 2012 wasn't as much to keep them on board, but to reach out to more people.
Aside from fund-raising, Goff said the digital operation wasn’t about getting supporters on their lists to vote — it was about getting their friends to vote for Obama.
Obama's Massive Facebook Reach
According to Teddy Goff, the nearly 34 million Facebook users who "like" Barack Obama on the social networking sites are friends with 98% of the U.S. Facebook population, making it an effective tool to reach out to younger voters.
