According to The Next Web’s “Lunch with the President?” post, Obama’s full schedule is now online for everyone to see. It’s up on the White House’s website. You can look at it by day or week, and there’s even a box where you can change the date so you can see his schedule as far as it goes into the future.

As TNW says, “the President’s schedule has always been available to the press, just not like this.” Although this feature may be aimed at the press, it’s available to anyone; from a marketing standpoint, this makes me think. The main points in social media marketing are to:

• bring out the human in your brand
• create a sense of transparency
• make your audience feel connected.

No other President has had the ability to accomplish these things like President Obama now does. Today, we can access his schedule on the internet and through an app on our iPhones. What’s the next step? Will this administration continue to break down the walls that have separated the people from their government? Is this a campaign to improve/strengthen the public opinion of the President, or just a way to use technology to make things easier? I’d be interested in seeing how this—and possible future steps toward transparency, connection, etc.—affect the next election.

Photo by Jason Means