Gadgetory

and Shasta look at that star that's lovely tipping your head now but look at that fantastic technology has impacted Americans relationship with government for 240 years we've gone from stump speeches given on actual stumps to radio to television 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 in YouTube the public is more engaged with government in more ways than ever before but it's Michelle Obama who's 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 is faced online while still balancing her strategy with 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 so in less than a decade it's an enormous amount change how did you think about handling that change why do you decide to so aggressively embrace social media you know if you think about the campaign this presidency we were always striving to be kind of 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 you know because what we understood is that this generation they're looking for authenticity you know 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 in any way compelling to the audience's that we were trying to reach so that's been refreshing you know so people can get to know me directly you know they can see I'm kind of silly sometimes that I care they can feel the action they don't have to have that filter through another source and young people in particular like that it's true and so much of what Michelle does online she seems authentic and natural it could be her donkey 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 what platform she is to say it the first lady has four initiatives that she and her team promote each of these requires a different approach to find a right audience on a right planet so something as simple as turning up with a turn it takes a lot of planning when you are planning to do something online when you're planning to do something on Instagram how does that idea how to turn up for what happened walking through it the beauty is is I'm surrounded by a lot of Millennials yeah so I usually get ideas from my team well and it's often about what is the strategic priority know what is a strategic goal that we want to achieve each of the first lady's four initiatives let's move joining forces reach higher and the pros learn each have a goal and they have a different audience we wonder what's the platform that will serve us fast so return for what so that was actually a product of the first lady's first vine QA hey it's Michelle Obama I'm excited to answer your question it's a bomb what you gave it falls eggs my favorite fall vegetable is a sweet potato my name is Julie how'd you get kids to work out when they don't want I remind kids that working out is just like playing on average how many calories you burn every time you turn up turn up for what 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 slick says I feel good I do was that your idea was it the president's idea yeah well you know know as one of our team ya know and it it helps that you know the president what helps with me and the president as if is that we're connected enough to pop culture that I know who Little John is I know the song my kids are singing it so when someone somebody says you know why don't we do turn up for what I get it immediately and I was like okay that can be cute so one thing that strikes me on all of this which i think is fascinating is that the tools that you use to create the media and then distribute the media are the same tools that the public is now using to both consume when you create but then 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 I think change that your politics do you see that as it changed how you approach being first time you know um yeah definitely you know what we learned is that we have to be nimble you know you can't sort of be stuck in the way things were done or in the way we did things even in the first term you know because the social media platforms are ever-changing and you got to be ready to move and shift with them my whole goal the question that I asked myself that our team we ask ourselves is what's going to work what's going to move the needle what's going to change the conversation because what we talked about even coming in was that you know we don't want to be an administration a presidency is 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 that you're trying to reach and if that means vine all right let's bring some of the VI VIIRS in here and let's 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 Rios to open up these tours so that millions of people who know who can never come and see these rooms have the opportunity to do it that's the beauty of this administration we have all of these wonderful tools to just open things up more and more and it's been so much fun doing it one thing I would add is you know it's a little-known fact the first lady's office doesn't have any congressional authority or any independent funding we got enough it we got nothing except a great principal and a good open thing other than that when we want to have you know when you want to have impact we want to open the White House and you want to move the needle on all of the initiatives that you know have become hallmarks of this office social media is a great opportunity for that and I think that you I hope you would agree that you know the next you know people who are here it's 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 women people of color and other underrepresented groups suffer the kind of harassment and silences then that's something the verge takes very seriously and it's why our parent company Vox media has teamed up with Intel and others to launch hack harassment a way to work with social platforms to safeguard users from online abuse what do you think platforms like Instagram Facebook Twitter can do to stop this problem you know and as a mom you know this is one of the things that I worry about because you know we were talking about this the other day in the office it's just you know these platforms not only do you bypass the middleman but with young people you can bypass the parent you know my 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 when you're talking about really young kids you know they don't know what they're doing you know as I said it's like given you know a 12 year old the keys to the car and going just see what happens you know get out there on the road figure it out and you know bad stuff can happen so one of the things I hope that the the social media platforms all you guys can get together and 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 they will do what school it's just you guys have to make the right thing cool well you've been helping out a lot and doing cool stuff yeah well I'm doing it so you got one year left what's what do you want to accomplish this year and what kind of legacy only particularly with communicating with young people on platforms well we want to you know we this platform is so unique we will never have it again the White House this experience you know social media allows the country to grow with the White House we or the White House to grow with the country you know they're 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 that they get the message said they understand the policies that you know we are desperately 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 you