How did Obama use the social media to win?

Barack Obama very effectively embraced social media during the 2008 presidential campaign, using Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube to mobilize and reach out to young voters. His Organizing for America (later Obama for America) then gathered the user-names of young supporters and made further use of social media to keep these people informed; the campaign also used social media to send its followers information about up-coming events, opportunities to win dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Obama, or get buttons and T shirts. Both Mr. Obama himself and the first Lady, Michelle Obama, also tweeted sometimes, although at other times, it was their staffs tweeting on their behalf (if the president or first lady were sending a tweet directly, they used their initials, so people could distinguish their posts from posts their staff sent).

Conversely, John McCain, his challenger, was very late to making use of social media. (It should be noted this had nothing to do with his age; there were older candidates who had been pushed in social media usage by their kids or by young staffers. But Mr. McCain was a late adopter of this form of communication, furthering the perception that his campaign was aimed at older Demographics.)