Fantastic.
Look at that.
Stunning.
That's lovely, tipping your head like that.
Look at that.
Fantastic.
Really cool shot.
Technology has impacted American's relationship with government for 240 years.
We’ve gone from stump speeches given on actual stumps to radio, to television, and
now the internet.
And things are moving faster than ever: when Barack Obama took office in 2008, he was proudly
known as the first “BlackBerry president.”
But that BlackBerry isn’t exactly proof of being tech savvy anymore.
His administration has had to rapidly embrace platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
The public is more engaged with government in more ways than ever before.
But its Michelle Obama whose taken it even farther.
With her initiatives aimed specifically at young people, she’s pursued even newer tools
like Vine, Instagram, Snapchat, and Periscope.
The First Lady’s office has stood at the forefront of the changes the White House has
faced online, while still balancing her strategy with a unique authenticity.
Somehow, Michelle Obama is a politician who’s remained cool.
We had the chance to speak with Michelle and her communications director Caroline Adler
about how they pulled that off.
Nilay: So, in less than a decade, it's been an enormous amount of change, how did you
think about handling that change, why did you decide to so aggressively embrace social
media?
FLOTUS: If you think about the campaign, this Presidency, we were always striving to be
cutting edge nowadays, this generation, they're not watching nightly news, they're not reading
the newspapers, they're not watching the Sunday morning shows, they're on their phones.
So we had to start thinking of creative and fun ways to connect with those folks.
Because what we understood was this generation, they're looking for authenticity, they're
looking for what feels real and natural, so I knew that my issues had to be real and natural
to me if I was going to be anyway compelling to the audiences that we were trying to reach.
So that’s been refreshing.
so people can get to know me directly.
they can see that im kinda silly some times, that i care, they can feel the passion.
they don’t have to have that filtered through another source.
And young people, in particular, like that.
It’s true.
In so much of what Michelle does online, she seems authentic and natural.
It could be her dunking on the Miami Heat with Lebron James.
Or hanging out with a few Vine superstars.
Or rapping with Jay Pharoah.
In each of these, it feels like she’s having fun.
But behind the scenes, a lot of work goes into what she says and and what platforms
she uses to say it.
The First Lady has four initiatives she and her team promote.
Each requires a different approach to find the right audience on the right platform.
So something as simple as turning up with a turnip takes a lot of planning.
Nilay: When you are planning to do something on Vine, when you're planning to do something
on Instagram, how does that idea come up, how did Turnip For What happen?
Walk me through that.
FLOTUS: The beauty is, I'm surround by a lot of millennials, so I usually get ideas from
my team.
Caroline Adler: And it's often about, what is the the strategic priority, what is the
strategic goal that we want to achieve.
So each of the First Lady's four initiatives: Let's Move, Joining Forces, Reach Higher,
and Let Girls Learn, each have a goal, and they have a different audience, and when we're
looking at our goal for each initiative, at a certain time, we wonder, "Well, what's the
platform that will serve us best?"
So, for Turnip For What.
So that was actually a product of the First Lady's first Vine Q&A.
Vine: Hey its Michelle Obama I'm excited to answer your questions.
Question: Mrs. Obama, what's your favorite fall veggie?
FLOTUS: My favorite fall vegetable is a sweet potato.
Question: My name is Jordon, How do you get kids to work out when they don't want to?
FLOTUS: I remind kids that working out is just like playing.
Question: On average, how many calories do you burn every time you Turn Up?
FLOTUS: Turnip for what?
*music*
You know, we want to make healthy eating and active kids part of the conversation.
And it was all because we started out wanting to have a conversation on platforms where
our audience lived.
So that was Vine.
Nilay: So who had that idea?
Was that your idea?
Was that the President's idea?
Did Lil Jon call you?
FLOTUS: No, no – one of our team, you know.
And it helped that, what helps with me and the President is that we're connected enough
to pop culture that I know who Lil Jon is, I know the song, my kids are singing it, so
when somebody says "Why don't we do Turnip For What?"
I get it immediately, and I was like "OK, that could be cute".
Nilay: One thing that strikes me about all of this, which I think is fascinating is that
the tools that you use to create the media are the same tools that the public is now
using to both consume what you create and also to create their own media, they're intimately
familiar with how to use Snapchat, they're intimately familiar with how to use Instagram.
I think that's really changed the nature of the communication, and I think it's changed
the nature of politics.
Do you see that, has it changed how you approach being First Lady at all?
FLOTUS: What we learned is that we have to be nimble.
You can't sort of be stuck in the way things we done or the way we did things even in the
first term, because the social media platforms are ever changing and you've gotta be ready
to move and shift with them.
My whole goal, the question that I ask myself, that our team, we ask ourselves, is "What's
gonna work?
What's gonna move the needle, what's gonna change the conversation" because what we talked
about even coming in is that we don't want to be an administration, a Presidency that's
just into meaningless slogans.
We want to do things that are actually going to change people's lives, and the only way
to do that is to constantly make those shifts so that the message is getting directly to
the people you're trying to reach.
And if that means Vine, alright, let's bring some of the VIV'ers in here and lets do some
fun stuff with them, if that's what young people are listening to.
If we want to get more people into the White House and have them access the people's house,
well then let's use virtual videos to open up these tours so that millions of people
who can never come and see these rooms have the opportunity to do it.
That's the beauty of this administration.
We have all these wonderful tools to just open things up more and more, and it's been
so much fun doing it.
Caroline Adler: One thing I would add is, it's a little known fact, the First Lady's
office doesn't have any Congressional authority or any independent funding.
FLOTUS: We got nothing.
Caroline Adler: We got nothing.
Except a great principle.
FLOTUS: And a good team.
Other than that...
Caroline Adler: We want to have impact, we want to open the White House, and you want
to move the needle on all of the initiatives, that have become hallmarks of this office,
social media is a great opportunity for that, and I think that you'd, I hope you would agree
the next people who are here, it expands the office, it expands the impact that you can
have without those other resources.
But even though there’s so much good to be found online, there’s also a lot of bad.
These new platforms can be used for abuse.
And the past few years have seen people, particularly woman, people of color, and other underrepresented
groups, who suffer the kind of harassment that silences them.
It’s something The Verge and I take very seriously.
It’s why our parent company Vox Media teamed up with Intel and others to launch #HackHarassment,
a way to work with social platforms to safeguard their users from online abuse.
Nilay: What do you think platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, can do to stop this problem.
FLOTUS: And as a mom, this is one of the things that I worry about, because we were talking
about this the other day in the office, it's just, these platforms, not only do you bypass
the middle man, but with young people, you can bypass the parent.
My kids first connection to social media happened without me involved, because they can get
their phones and they can tap into this stuff, and they're using it, before you even know.
So the truth is these kids have access at younger and younger ages to these platforms
with no real guidelines on how to use it, because that's sort of the point.
We want them to get in there and figure it out.
But when you're talking about really young kids, they don't know what they're using,
it's like giving a twelve year old the keys to the car and going "Just see what happens.
Get out there on the road, figure it out."
And bad stuff can happen.
So one of the things I hope that the social media platforms, all you guys can get together
and help teach these kids all the many positive ways that they can use these platforms, because
there are so many.
Make those positive uses trendier.
Get your hottest celebrities and start figuring out different ways that you can use Instagram
to highlight good stuff, and that that becomes how these tools are used, and kids will follow
those trends.
because they will follow trends, they will do what's cool, it's just, you guys have to
make the right thing cool.
Nilay: Well, you've been helping out a lot, doing cool stuff.
FLOTUS: Yeah, we'll keep doing it.
Nilay: So you've got one year left: what do you want to accomplish this year, what kind
of legacy do you want to leave particularly with communicating with young people?
FLOTUS: This platform is so unique.
We will never have this again.
The White House, this experience, social media allows the country to grow with the White
House, we, or the White House to grow with the country.
You know, there are constant changes, young people expect and want something different
from their leadership.
And social media gives us the tools to stay connected and to again, be flexible and to
reach people where they need to be reached so they get the messages and understand the
policies that we are desperately trying to implement.
You can't do it now without this kind of connection.
So we're going to spend these 12 months on every single issue, making sure we're driving
to the very end.