One can still presume that the profile is not being run by the President himself, but by his reelection campaign. This has even been disclosed in the profile’s posts. The first Presidential post read, “Welcome to the Obama 2012 Google+ page.” it continued noting, “We’re still kicking the tires and figuring this out, 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.”
Looking at it positives out of this, Google+ can boast that the President’s profile is in its social network. Remarkably, the arrival of Obama is an important stamp of approval for the nascent social network.
Obama’s social networking campaigns have always been a high and this move would only help him bolster his campaign. Obama has been an active user on Twitter and Facebook, since he was a U.S. Senator running for the highest office in the land. The President’s social media savvy is often credited with boosting his first presidential campaign, helping to recruit an army of young campaign workers and small donors. Notably, Obama held a Town Hall with Twitter in June, which was followed by yet another at Facebook in April.
But like every rose has a thorn, this would reveal the negatives of Google+ too. The relative lack of fanfare surrounding Obama’s arrival may indicate just how far Google+ has to go. As a President of the most powerful country, his campaign’s first post didn’t get due respect, even though it was arguably the most historic thing to happen on Google+ this week. Reason being that more than 12 hours later, there were just 110 shares. In comparison, a regular popular post on Facebook stories get more than 100 shares on a regular basis.
Apart from the campaign’s first post, there had been two more posts on the same day. One of them were to tout the President’s tax credits for unemployed veterans, while the other one was an attempt to push a campaign contest where winners get to have dinner with Obama.
The campaign has even posted nine scrapbook photos, but till now there are no videos posted.
The Obama campaign followers on Google+ would still be waiting for the President’s first Google+ hangout. Possibly, if the President comes in for a hangout, it may supplant the meeting of Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Llama as the most historic hangout in Google+’s young life.