Barack Obama: Organizing for America 2.0 Case Analysis

Barack Obama: Organizing for America 2.0 Case Analysis

Case

Barack Obama had a grand victory in 2008 US presidential elections and was due to be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.

Obama for America (OFA), the president-elect's official campaign organization, announced the formation of a post-election organization, Organizing for America (OFA 2.0). The new organization would use the strategies deployed during election campaigning. It would keep the campaign field team offices open after Obama takes to office as president for the purpose of influencing supporters to back administrative agendas.

The case describes the activities of the Obama for America campaign and asks whether the new president should use social media tools to activate the grassroots, or whether he should abandon these unconventional tools in order not to upset politicians (potential allies) in Washington.

Objective

To analyze pros and cons of Obama administrations’ Organizing for America (OFA 2.0) strategy and recommend appropriate action.

Situation Analysis

Obama’s background

 Obama earned a degree in political science from Columbia University and completed law degree from Harvard Law School.

 He joined student anti-apartheid group and was very active in community organizations.

 Later he became director of church based community organization. The job helped him to develop political skills.

 He shared the dream of Martin Luther king that people be judged by the strength of their character and not by the color of the skin.

 He was a skilled orator and got much media attention for his powerful speeches.

Obama’s Campaigning strategy – Use of Social Media

 In February 2007 Obama announced his intention to run for US presidency elections 2008.

 Two websites were launched barackobama.com and my.barackobama.com (MyBO) to garner support.

 Chris Hughes, Facebook co-founder, designed the structure of the political campaign involving use of multifarious social media tools (collectively called Web 2.0).

 Deployment of innovative strategies along with transparent dealings and prompt feedback mechanism led to huge base of supporters.

 OFA garnered an asset of 13 million e-mail addresses, a list of 4 million contributors,