Barack Obama's social media guru visits Sophos

Filed Under: Social networks, Video

Ben Self came to the high-tech SophosLabs offices in North Sydney, Australia, a few days ago while he was visiting the country as a guest of the Internet Industry Association.

Ben is a founding partner of Blue State Digital, and has been described as the man behind President Barack Obama's online campaign - arguably the most successful digital engagement strategy in history.

Imagine convincing three million US voters to donate over US$500 million online, and developing a communication strategy that mobilised, two million social networking participants.

We couldn't miss the opportunity to grab a camera and ask Ben some questions on a range of topics, such as the changing nature of the IT role in companies, how they ensured that the Obama campaign's online presence was properly secured from hackers, and just how the internet is altering online marketing.

(Enjoy this video? You can check out more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel and subscribe if you like)

Thanks to Rob Forsyth, managing director of Sophos Asia Pacific, for conducting the interview.

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About the author

Graham Cluley has worked in the computer security industry for more than 20 years, developing anti-virus software and doing quite a lot of talking about internet threats. He's won awards for his blogging, but is proudest of the text adventure games he wrote when he was still wearing short trousers. You can learn more about those (the games, not the trousers) at grahamcluley.com. Send Graham an email, subscribe to his updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and App.net, and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.