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Barack Obama Campaign Reaches Out to America's Niche Audiences Through Online Social Networks

Posted on: Monday, 15 October 2007, 12:00 CDT

NEW YORK, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Community Connect Inc. (CCI), the leading publisher of niche social networking communities, announced presidential candidate Barack Obama has created a member profile on each of the company's five sites in an effort to excite and engage potential voters. Since the profiles went live on October 5, 2007, the success of the campaign has become evident with Senator Obama's profiles garnering over 200,000 friends. In one week, his profile on BlackPlanet.com garnered more friends than his MySpace and Facebook profiles.

"It makes complete sense for political candidates to leverage the power and engagement of our social networks, and the niche minority and affinity audiences we serve," said Kay Madati, Vice President of Marketing at Community Connect. "Our audiences are traditionally underrepresented in the political dialogue, and the immediate success of the Obama profiles speaks to the untapped opportunity that politicians have to facilitate a technology enabled grassroots dialogue on their vision for our country."

Why CCI and Obama

Senator Obama's campaign approached CCI's niche social networking communities to facilitate compelling dialogues among passionate constituents. His presence across BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com, AsianAve.com, GLEE.com and Faithbase.com allows his messages to disseminate and circulate among highly targeted niche groups, and in turn, gives those audiences a voice on the issues that concern them.

Senator Obama's profile includes an active question and answer mechanic, regularly updated blogs, behind-the-scenes photos and new videos from the campaign trail. The profile is updated directly by his official campaigners, and represents a thoughtful, in depth look at his policies. All together, it is the Obama campaign's most comprehensive engagement across any social network. As a result of CCI's targeted platforms, candidates are able to drill down the issues that resonate among specific demographics, allowing for robust profile pages.

One BlackPlanet.com member posted, "I don't normally vote, but if it will help put you [Obama] in office, I will start. I think you [Obama] are one of the most qualified candidates in the running and it's not just because you are black, it's because you stand up for what is right and would make a great leader of this country."

CCI -- Consistent Traffic Driver

Barack Obama's campaign approached BlackPlanet.com because the site has consistently driven traffic to the campaign's official site. Senator Obama's profile was initially created in an effort to engage the sites' 16 million African Americans who spend considerable time social networking. This demographic, along with rapidly growing and highly targeted ethnic and affinity groups on other CCI sites, represent a much sought-after organized group of constituents who are eager to partake in the 2008 election.

-- Two-thirds (66%) of BlackPlanet.com members are likely to vote in the 2008 election (poll conducted on 10.10.07). -- 60% of MiGente.com members are likely to vote in the 2008 election (poll conducted on 10.10.07).

Madati continues, "Senator Obama's profiles on our sites exemplify the best of online grassroots campaigning today. Politics has always been a grassroots endeavor -- technology and social networking amplify the reach and the engagement for a politician. It flattens the world without diluting or misconstruing the message. Presidential hopefuls are able to reach and engage passionate constituents in unprecedented ways; capitalizing on their ability to motivate groups to participate in the dialogue, register and ultimately vote."

About Community Connect

Community Connect Inc. is the nation's largest niche social networking company. With more than 19 million members, Community Connect Inc. is a top 50 Web publisher (as measured in page views by ComScore). Its sites, BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com, AsianAve.com, GLEE.com, and Faithbase.com, present marketers with a targeted opportunity to reach U.S. multicultural audiences. Its proprietary technology platform provides members with the most user-friendly tools to connect with members of their community and discuss culturally relevant content. http://www.communityconnect.com/.

About the Profiles -- BlackPlanet.com -- the largest African American social networking community. http://www.blackplanet.com/barack_obama/ -- MiGente.com -- the fastest growing community for English speaking second and third generation Latinos. http://www.migente.com/barack_obama/ -- AsianAve.com -- the online destination for second and third generation Asian Americans. http://www.asianave.com/barack_obama/ -- GLEE.com -- the online hub for the GLBT community. http://www.glee.com/barack_obama/ -- Faithbase.com -- the newly launched site for nondenominational Christians. http://www.faithbase.com/barack_obama/ Generating Results Days Profile Live # of Friends 3 days 60,000 friends 5 days 121,000 friends 7 days 176,322 friends 10 days 204,449 friends About the Barack Obama Campaign

Barack Obama is running to become the 44th President of the United States. For more information about Barack and his campaign for change visit http://www.barackobama.com/. For Barack's complete background visit http://www.barackobama.com/about.

Community Connect Inc.

CONTACT: Aaron Kutnick, +1-212-751-3397, akutnick@groupsjr.com, or TarynLanger, +1-212-751-3392, tlanger@groupsjr.com, both of Group SJR, forCommunity Connect Inc.

Web site: http://www.communityconnect.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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