Obama’s Online Town Haul

Thursday, March 26, 2009

By all accounts, President Obama’s online town hall meeting was a big success.  Because it was a first of its kind for a sitting President, the media fawned over the idea all morning, meaning the event was a huge PR success before the broadcast even started.  The participation numbers are impressive as well.  As I write this, the official stats on Whitehouse.gov state “92,934 people have submitted 104,070 questions and cast 3,605,903 votes.”  Looking behind these numbers gives you the true measure of success for this excercise.

What did the President get for an hour of his time answering questions on the internet?  The most significant acheviement is getting nearly 100,000 individuals to participate.  Well, not just participate, but register their name, email address, and ZIP code with the White House website and agreeing to a privacy policy that allows the White House to essentailly add them to whatever email lists they choose.  This is downright brilliant. And this is no accident.

The site itself is impressive as well.  Getting more than 100,000 questions submitted and 3.6 million “votes” on which questions should or should not be asked is significant.  But the significance of adding nearly 100,000 more names to the White House grassroots army shows that this young Administration understands the true value of engaging the public on the internet.  They turned a Town Hall Meeting into a Town Haul for the White House.