Yes We Did: An Inside Look at How Social Media Built the Obama Brand

by Rahaf Harfoush

FOREWORD by Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and Grown Up Digital

The Obama campaign’s mastery of social media for everything from fundraising to volunteer coordination has been widely reported. Until now, there hasn’t been an in-depth analysis of how they did it.

In Yes We Did , new media strategist and campaign headquarters volunteer Rahaf Harfoush gives us a behind the-scenes look at the campaign’s use of technology, from its earliest days through election night. She reveals strategic insights organizations can apply to their own brands. Discover how unwavering strategic vision and collaborative technologies–email, blogs, social networks, Twitter, and SMS messaging–empowered a formidable online community to help elect the world’s first “digital” President.

Genres: Politics, Social Media

199 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2009

Reviews

[Chris Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting insight to how the American political system works. I found this fascinating, a real insight to how a passion for politics at the grass roots can be supported by those at the top. So encouraging to read about so many people who were excited to be involved in this and gave time willingly to contribute.

As a lessons learned and business advice book, this was weaker. Most of the points were repeated too much and none were exactly new. This side of the book left me unimpressed; it would have been better written as a short narrative of the team's success.

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited when I found this book. I thought it would give me some interesting insights on how a large political campaign is run from a digital marketer's point of view. What I should have anticipated is that 7 years is a long time in the digital world, and many things have since become outdated. I can't blame the book for that, and some of the concepts, I'm sure, were pretty groundbreaking at the time. It's kinda interesting to get an overview of the marketing efforts involved, but it's just that - an overview, and I had really hoped for some more in-depth insights.

[Nick Kempinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conceptually it was good. The coordination between staff and volunteers was amazing.

However the one downfall - I would have liked to know more details. What services did they use? How did they come up with solutions for the type of communication they wanted?

Still a great book to gain a few insights on strategies you might not have thought of.

[Raquel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting in the beginning, but becomes redundant around the middle. I wish there would be a more clear exposition of HOW they did things, instead of insisting so much on why or where the objectives were -- those were clear very early on, but the reader ends up with a very superficial knowledge of how they used social media for the campaign.

[Jennifer Osbon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like him or not, there are great business lessons to be learned from the social campaign that elected Obama.

[Josh McConnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An inside look at how social media helped to elect a President. I had the privilege of seeing the author speak in person and met her afterward. Great example of how powerful social media is.