Frank Speiser, co-founder of the SocialFlow, said that “this is the first real social media election.” In the last year, the country has collectively spent over 1,000 years reading about Donald Trump on social media platforms. Donald Trump’s social media reach was so great that it would cost $380 million to achieve the same reach with traditional advertising (gov tech).
Social Media is Everywhere
Now more than ever, citizens get their news from social media. Many major news publishers, like CNN and the Wall Street Journal, use the Discover Pages on Snapchat as a main platform to disseminate the news to their audience.
Full Circle
With such active social media presence amongst voters, presidential candidates used social media to their advantage. Patrick Ruffini, a political strategist, explains a feedback loop. Candidates post on social platforms. Those posts make news. That news is then circulated through social media.
Social Media Strategy
Since the last election, Facebook has seen a 60% increase in daily active users. This changes the strategy politicians use. In 2012, candidates tended to post once a day. It was mostly short, dry statements. Occasionally, some retweets and thanks to supporters occurred.
While Hillary Clinton increased her social media presence, she did not come close to passing Donald Trump’s reach. According to SocialFlow’s estimates, her projected advertising would have been $100 million in comparison to Trump’s $380 million (Gov Tech).
How did Trump accomplish this? His posts gather more attention for a few reasons. First, his reputation as a man, business man, and celebrity generate a lot of buzz. Second, he bring up more than one issue in a single post. He tends to bring up three issues in a single statement. This activates three times the amount of people because there are three different issues people care about. And third, many of posts comments and posts are controversial. These types of comments allowed him to reach far more people than Clinton.
Who should be President of the United States is up to each citizen. But there is no denying that Social Media is changing the game.
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