 "Photo: Courtesy Nathan Clendenin Photography")
New media expert, Rahaf Harfoush, a strategist with President Obama’s presidential campaign, recently spoke about her experience with social media during the presidential campaign and how it is changing the way people and organizations communicate and do business with one another.
The speech was given to the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce at their 2010 annual meeting on February 9.
The Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce is Durham County’s leading business organization, serving close to 1,000 businesses, government agencies and non-profit member firms.
“I came to speak to the chamber to talk to them about how they could apply the use of social media tools to their advantage in this rapidly growing society,” said Harfoush.
Since the campaign ended in 2008, Harfoush, a Canadian, has been speaking across the country about her experience with social media on the campaign.
In her speech, Harfoush discussed her 2009 book, “Yes We Did: An Inside Look At How Social Media Built the Obama Brand.”
“Yes We Did” explores the way social media was used during Obama’s presidential campaign.
It also gives advice to businesses on branding and communicating with customers.
One thing that Harfoush finds beneficial about the uses of social media is that it connects people to one another.
“I love people. I use social media to help make the world a better place by doing the things that are necessary to affect change,” she said.
Harfoush said that she joined the Obama campaign because she believes that “everyone should do their part to make this world a better place.”
Harfoush added she could offer her expertise as a new media strategist to help the candidate make it to the White House.
Harfoush spent three months as a volunteer with the Obama new media team in Chicago where she worked with Chris Hughes and Joel Rosenberg, the architects behind the new media team.
“What I did was a small part. I was one of millions who wanted to see a positive change,” she said.
Harfoush said the Obama’s campaign set standards for the web community which will be key for future elections, but that a foundation was set by the 2004 Howard Dean run in the Democratic primary.
“If it was not for Howard Dean’s primary run in 2004, we would not be where we are today,” she said.
According to Harfoush, the Obama campaign was able to fine tune what was started in by Dean’s 2004 campaign.
“People will expect more as time progresses, they will expect politicians to continue to use the tools that are available,” she said.
Harfoush said that the use of social media tools is just now finding its footing and will become more and more developed over the coming years.
“The use of social media in 2008 was a big experiment which is evolving and becoming more sophisticated producing more useful tools,” she said.
According to Harfoush, Americans are intense users of social media.
“The United States puts more trust in its use of social media than other countries,” she said.
She said Americans spend more time on social networking sites than others and that they are more open with what they do on those sites.
Even though Harfoush enjoys using social media, she believes some monitoring is necessary on the personal level, especially for students.
“Students should monitor their use of social networks but still try to experiment with it,” Harfoush said.
She also mentions that students should think of social media as a tool and come up with their own conclusion of the use of it.
“In order to understand the tools that are available, you have to play, explore and discover what suits you.”
She also recommended that students “keep a business hat on while they use social media.”
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