My.BarackObama.com: Keep it Local. Keep it Real.

Excerpted from Yes We Did! An inside look at how social media built the Obama brand (New Riders)
By Rahaf Harfoush
Dateline: July 31, 2009

Obama's official social network, my.barackobama.com, was at the heart of the campaign’s new media strategy. Affectionately referred to internally as MyBO, the site allowed users to create events, exchange information, raise funds, and connect with voters in their area. MyBO was the digital home base from which the campaign could mobilize its army of supporters. Creating an account required an email address and a password. Users didn’t even have to confirm their email address. This was done to make the sign-up process as fast and easy as possible.

The drawback of this technique was that people could create accounts using fake email addresses with the sole intent of posting negative comments, a frequent occurrence requiring constant monitoring by the MyBO team. Online trolls, people who joined the community only to disrupt and insult members, were usually reported to online community managers within minutes and removed from the site. Over the course of the campaign, over three million people would create an account on MyBO and use the site’s tools to organize for Obama.
Chris Hughes, Director of Online Organizing, was fascinated by the challenge of building a political social network. “As great as Barack is, if the campaign hadn’t been constituted in this idea of investing in our everyday supporters and helping them organize among themselves, I wouldn’t have been as excited about the job,” he said. One of Facebook’s co-founders, Hughes left his role leading product development to join the campaign in Chicago. Armed with Facebook’s communitybuilding expertise, he applied the same principles to grow MyBO: Keep it real and keep it local. MyBO was built to strengthen existing connections with neighbors. Hughes understood that the primary function of MyBO was to enable supporters to reach each other and form their own connections. The MyBO team wanted to ensure that the online infrastructure would translate into an on-the-ground army that would help solicit votes.

Creating a sense of community was essential to MyBO’s success, and campaign staff made a consistent effort to foster a supportive online atmosphere by providing plenty of resources to help users get the most out of the site. Videos offered a step-by-step tutorial on how to use each of the online tools, and a downloadable host guide helped organizers plan the perfect event from beginning to end. Campaign staff hosted weekly conference calls with MyBO members to exchange tips and insights about using the online tools. The team phoned hosts who had used MyBO to organize an event to offer support and advice. They often called back after the event as well, to make sure that everything had gone smoothly and to ask for feedback. This was one of the most rewarding parts of my own volunteer responsibilities. I loved connecting with real people and hearing the excitement in their voices when they heard that I was calling from National Headquarters to thank them for their efforts. “We’re fired up and ready to go,” was an oft-repeated phrase. Their enthusiasm often buoyed my own spirits, especially when working twelve-hour days.

This article will look at the strategies that made MyBO an inviting and welcoming environment and some of the creative ways in which supporters used the site to organize for change.

Focus on what matters — We’ll examine the way the profile, action center, and personal fundraising pages were used to keep the communities focused on the most important goal: getting Obama elected.

Incite the right actions — The campaign’s activity index was refined to reward supporters who were using online tools to effectively organize offline.

Leverage creativity — The Obama team left enough flexibility in the events, group listings, and user blogs to give supporters an opportunity to create an intimate connection with the campaign through personal expression.

Focus on What Matters

The MyBO interface was carefully designed with usability in mind. The Obama team made sure it was easy for users to participate, raise funds, and stay updated with the campaign. Each MyBO account had the following components: dashboard, profile, action center, fundraising, network, and sidebar.

Dashboard

The dashboard was the user’s homepage, a place to get an overview of all the action happening on MyBO. It provided easy shortcuts to quickly access the organizing tools, including personal fundraising and events. This kept the tools in sight—and foremost in the user’s mind—whenever he or she logged on.

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