Obama’s Social Media Hits and Misses

Nate Lubin, the White House’s social media guru, is stepping down. He’s left quite a legacy.

President Barack Obama has used social media to connect with voters in the United States as well as people around the world more actively than any other president. The main reason for this is that other commander-in-chief’s haven’t had the online tools that Lubin, a 28-year old who started as a campaign volunteer in New Hampshire in 2008 and joined White House staff in 2013, has at his disposal. But that shouldn’t dismiss the effectiveness of some of the campaigns Lubin oversaw on behalf of the president, many of which rolled out some of Obama’s more ambitious initiatives.

To mark Lubin’s departure, first reported by the Washington Post, we’ve gathered what we consider a few highlights, as well as some misses, of Obama’s social media messaging. Enjoy.

Lowlight: “Things Everybody Does But Doesn’t Talk About, Featuring President Obama,” on Buzzfeed. The video was an effort by the president to get people to visit www.healthcare.gov. It comes across as a bit labored and not all that funny. But credit to Buzzfeed: they got Obama to use a selfie stick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOoZZQzfEpU

Highlight: The White House’s #FreeCommunityCollege campaign. The president posted a video on the White House Facebook page ahead of this year’s State of the Union address hyping the president’s plan to offer two free years of community college. By social media standards, it was a raging success: more than 8 million people have watched it.

Highlight: A video promoting Obama’s efforts to expand broadband access. As a millennial Lubin understands how to reach young people. That’s why he used Upworthy, a site popular with young people, to tout the president’s plan to expand high-speed internet access.

Lowlight: Video to the people of Iran. During this year’s nuclear negotiations with Tehran Obama recorded a video directed at Iranians. The clip was posted to coincide with the Nowruz holiday and was sold as a celebratory message to Iran’s young people, but it remains unclear whether it, or other videos where the president addresses Iranians, had any impact on how that country’s youth view the president or the United States.

Highlight: Obama’s fourth quarter. The seriousness of the office he holds often hides the fact that the president has a decent sense of humor (at least in my opinion). It was on full display in a recent video called “Welcome to the 4th quarter of my presidency.” The 39-second clip shows the president lounging in the Oval Office, hitting golf balls off the White House roof, swimming in a White House fountain, getting drive thru at Arby’s, sporting Beats by Dre headphones behind a White House podium, and chiseling his face into Mount Rushmore, all to the tune of Icona Pop’s “I Love It.”

https://youtu.be/xMyqRVi79-8

This is just a small sampling of Lubin’s work. Check out more here.

Photo Credit: Gabriel Bouy/Getty Images