Barack Obama and the new White House website

It looks like Barack Obama’s new administration is starting as it means to go on by entirely redesigning the White House website. If nothing else is shows the US President’s thirst for the latest web 2.0 trends. During the campaign he was the most followed person on Twitter (http://twitter/barackobama) and he/the team now have over 140,000 followers. The impressive part is not how many followers he has on Twitter, but the fact he followed so many people back – his team have a good understanding of how ‘karma’ works online.

Of course, others get it, like Stephen Fry (but then you’d expect that) – when he joined Twitter there was a huge buzz. Not simply because he was part of the ‘Twitterverse’ but because he was following people back. That way, if you followed http://twitter.com/stephenfry, you very quickly got an email back like this:

“Hi, Paul Johnson.

Stephen Fry (stephenfry) is now following your updates on Twitter.”

While the return follow might be automated, the email from Twitter telling me that Stephen Fry was following me was great. It was quickly printed out and put on the staff notice board and I can guarantee a large proportion of the 54,182 return followers did the same. Don’t get me started on Andy Murray (follow him here http://twitter.com/andy_murray if you really want to be bored) – he follows just 25 people. He uses social media simply to tell people about himself … yawn!

White House Website

The overhauled White House website (www.whitehouse.gov) is the first promising sign of a new understanding of technology from the Oval Office. The redesigned website (launched during Obama’s swearing-in ceremony) is a pleasingly subtle reminder that things are “going to change around here”. It actually changed on the day he was sworn in – not four months after when it finally got commissioned/signed off etc …

The website looks like they actually want people to visit: it’s immediate, inviting and more personal thanks in part to actually using some of the web 2.0 technologies that are used by a good deal of people (but are surprisingly absent/never updated on most government-run websites). The most notable change of all, however, is the new blogging section - the Obama administration blogs! The whole website is written in a way that makes you want to read, it’s laid back. The blogs read like a blog – not like a dreary re-written press release.

Barack Obama made great use of the internet during the campaign – reaching people (often the young) via channels not often explored (or rather, reached properly) in politics. The new website, with all of the interactive elements, suggests that this was not simply for fundraising or electioneering – it’s the way things are going to be.

Need convincing? Take a look at the archived White House Page here (http://web.archive.org/web/*/whitehouse.gov) from the era of George W Bush.

UPDATE 26th Jan 2009: Paul at Loop PR received just received the following email:

“Hi, Paul Johnson (PBJohnson).

Barack Obama (BarackObama) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out Barack Obama’s profile here:

http://twitter.com/BarackObama

Best,

Twitter”

Well hello again!