Sunday, March 29, 2015

Obama Victory Celebration Didn't Extend to Google+

Obama-victory-celebration-didn-t-extend-to-google--a4a639dc21President Barack Obama celebrated his historic reelection victory across social media Tuesday night, right? Not quite.
On Twitter, Obama posted several post-election tweets, including his 'four more years' tweet which broke retweeting records. He posted a simple "thank you" on his Instagram feed, along with a confetti-filled picture. Both were cross-posted to Facebook, where they have now gained three million and one million Likes, respectively.
But the President's feed on Google+, active for most of Election Day, got left out of the victory celebration. The feed's most recent post as of Wednesday afternoon was "It's time to go vote!", posted Tuesday morning. (See above.)
Obama has 2.3 million followers on Google+, compared to nearly 23 million on Twitter. His Facebook page has been Liked nearly 33 million times. No doubt the President's social media team can be forgiven for focusing on the larger networks.
But in the context of a campaign run on a message of inclusivity, it seems an odd snub. Why not cross-post the victory pictures from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and give his Google+ supporters a chance to comment on them?
Obama launched his Google+ page in November 2011. “We’re still kicking the tires and figuring this out," the first post read, "so let us know what you’d like to see here and your ideas for how we can use this space to help you stay connected to the campaign."
The President did his first Google+ hangout a few months later, winning over at least one Republican questioner in the process.
Mitt Romney has not updated his Twitter or Google+ accounts since election night either. But the Republican challenger did update his Facebook page with a new Timeline cover photo, and a picture that simply reads "Thank you."

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