"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States will convene the first-ever Ask Me Anything session on Reddit."
You know that social media has power when the most powerful leader on the planet is using one of the most-popular-yet-less-well-known social media platforms to communicate (and upstage the RNC?) -- totally unannounced and completely by surprise.
I loved the tweet in my tweet stream that said something like, "Now every news director in the country is asking the nerdiest person in the newsroom - WTF is Reddit?"
For those of you who don't know, Reddit is a forum-like social platform that bills itself as "The Front Page of the Internet." So when this popped up this afternoon...
"Hi, I'm Barack Obama, President of the United States. Ask me anything. I'll be taking your questions for half an hour starting at about 4:30 ET. Proof it's me: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/240903767350968320 We're running early and will get started soon"
...Things got interesting.
What does this do politically? Who knows. For those who like the current POTUS -- well, it's the coolest thing ever. You could say it's a pretty cagey strategic move to steal the thunder of a presumably big Republic National Convention day.
And it certainly runs circles around those who are just now realizing that Twitter is a valuable tool.
For those who don't like him, it's a big meh. For those of us who track the rise of social media in business and government, this is a moment to remember. Clever and down-to-earth at the same time, it speaks volumes about where the future voters, employees, and citizens are gathering.
Turns out that out of the hundreds of questions submitted, he answered eight. The Atlantic has them here.
Next up, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on a Google+ hangout?
Beverly Macy is the CEO of Gravity Summit and Gravity Summit TV. She is also the co-author of The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing. You can email her at beverlymacy@gmail.com