President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign was boosted by its social media usage, and in preparation for the 2012 election, his camp is ramping up its social media presence again. The presidential committee for President Obama on Monday launched a Tumblr account for the 2012 campaign, the New York Times first reported.
There are just three posts on barackobama.tumblr.com so far. The first is an introductory post. Another includes a picture of a staffer working in the campaign’s Ohio offices and the third is a blurb from the speech the president delivered in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
“We’d like this Tumblr to be a huge collaborative storytelling effort—a place for people across the country to share what’s going on in our respective corners of it and how we’re getting involved in this campaign to make it better,” the introductory post reads, inviting people to send in photos, videos, posts, and other items that illustrate why they support Obama in 2012 via Tumblr’s submission feature.
The Tumblr page also offers the option to ask a question of the campaign and lists links to other online destinations related to Obama 2012.
In fact, Obama’s campaign is all over the social Web. Obama is active on Twitter with 10.7 million followers, which makes him the fourth-most popular person on the site. His Facebook page has 23.7 million Likes, and in August, the campaign launched a Foursquare profile for the White House that details Obama’s progress as he works toward reelection next year. It also runs a YouTube channel with 211,040 subscribers.
Many believe the commander-in-chief’s social media efforts on Facebook and Twitter played an important role in his win in 2008. As other candidates have adopted social media, Obama’s Tumblr debut is a nod to just how important social media will be in the coming election.