Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

The vast majority of working journalists, even those covering politics, have not sat down with a president of the United States for an interview. But in January 2015, three YouTube stars got that opportunity. They asked about drones, net neutrality and what super power the president would like to have. And then there was the moment when GloZell Green (3 million followers) handed a tube of her signature green lipstick to the leader of the free world. “For your first wife,” she said. Barack Obama was nonplussed. “You know something I don’t?” he asked.

To Dan Pfeiffer, the outgoing Senior Advisor to the President in charge of White House communications, the awkwardness was part of the lure: a moment of authenticity that helps a sometimes distant chief executive connect with his huge base of supporters. Pfeiffer, who has been with Obama since his first run for the White House, has been a key force in expanding the range of venues in which his boss can communicate with the American people. To the chagrin of a White House press corps accustomed to special access, the president has traded jibes and plugged Obamacare with Zach Galifianakis on Funny or Die, chatted about the climate with local weather anchors, and made faces in the mirror on a Buzzfeed video. The White House has also established a huge presence on Facebook, Twitter and Medium (yes, us), using the latter to break precedent and publish the State of the Union speech before the president delivered it....