(CBS News/Chenda Ngak) The 2012 Democratic National Convention kicked off Monday with CarolinaFest 2012 in Charlotte, N.C.
Convention proceedings are scheduled to start Tuesday. All of the traditional media outlets will be on the ground covering the event, but this election year the political parties are also ramping up their social media presence.
The DNC is creating several opportunities for supporters to engage on social media networks. An official app on Facebook lets users tweet their nominations on Twitter, using the phrase “I nominate Barack Obama because…” and the hashtag #INominateDNC. A DNC 2012 app has been launched for iPhones and Android devices. The app lets users view the convention schedule, explore Charlotte and follow convention tweets.
The DNC’s YouTube channel will host videos from the convention. Starting Tuesday, the mobile apps will also have a live stream of events.
“Our goal for this convention is to make it the most open and accessible convention in history,” Nikki Sutton, Democratic National Convention Committee director of digital media, told CBS News in an emailed statement. “From the very beginning we’ve used social media as a tool to have a conversation with Americans from all over the country. Between our use of social media and our opening and closing public events, this convention will include more people than ever before.”
Social media has grown immensely since the 2008 elections. Aside from the obvious Facebook, Twitter and YouTube profiles, the DNC also has official Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and Foursquare accounts – services that weren’t around during the last election cycle. Instagram users can view convention photos by looking up “demconvention” through the mobile app.
Supporters can follow President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Additionally, Spotify users can subscribe to the Obama Biden 2012 campaign’s playlists, as well.
Social media companies are working hard to cater to politicians, supporters and the media. Twitter has set up a political index that profiles the candidates’ number of followers, tweets and changes in daily activity.
Facebook has an official hub for U.S. politics that highlights politicians and political campaigns.
Here’s the full list of social media links for the 2012 Democratic National Convention and Obama Biden 2012 campaign.
Democratic National Convention social media profiles
Official website: DemConvention.com
Democratic National Convention on Foursquare
DemConvention on Instagram via Statigram
Convention hashtag: #DNC2012
Democratic National Convention mobile apps
DNC 2012 Android app at Google Play
Obama Biden 2012 social media profiles
Obama Biden 2012 official website: BarackObama.com
2012 politics hubs on social media sites
