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.

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

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About the author

Graham Cluley is senior technology consultant at Sophos. The readers of Computer Weekly voted him security blogger of the year in 2009 and 2010, and he pipped Stephen Fry to the title of "Twitter user of the year" too. Which was nice. He was also named "Best Security Blogger" by the readers of SC Magazine in 2011. You can subscribe to Graham's updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.