This week's focus: Political Campaigning on Social Media
This week we are going to be looking at how social media marketing is used for political campaigns and movements. The best example of this are polar opposites: Donald Trump and the #metoo campaign. (Although, granted, Donald Trump was one of the reasons that #metoo became even bigger than it already was in the midst of the Weinstein accusations, but I digress...)
Starting with political movements being promoted and influenced by social media - there is not much to be said of an intended strategy, as movements - such as #metoo - is not usually because of social media marketing so much as social media users' motivations. These motivations may be social presence or social norm, although it has been said that social norm does not much influence a user's motivation to share. However, with a movement like #metoo, there must be some ethos-related motivation behind it besides proving to your peers that you care. However, as there is no professionally-constructed strategy behind this, we will acknowledge the existence but not dive deep.
Let's go ahead with politicians using social media marketing to win elections or, at the very least, gain some favour with the public. As Heliz Mazouri cleverly puts it, "[...]political campaigns are essentially brand platforms—and as a candidate, [they] are the brand". This puts a whole new importance on social media marketing - it is no longer the little corner of society where a teen has their MySpace. Social media is now arguably one of the biggest parts of our society with engagement reaching incredible heights.
Once the politican's brand platform is formed and they have an audience, their social media marketing officer must then establish a firm strategy that the politician should follow almost to the letter. One article from workfront argues that although Donald Trump's "Twitter rants make it seem as though he tosses catchphrases about willy-nilly, it is likely that his messaging is part of a larger strategy – a carefully orchestrated brand portrayal". Having this brand portrayal will provide the constituents with a certain idea about the candidate, and gives the candidate the ability to directly address the public and perhaps even learn from it.
Overall, this increase of the use of social media marketing in political campaigns has had an effect on how many young people are going out to vote. However, we must consider the question, are they digging deeper to better understand the candidate, or is the social media strategy working that well?
Starting with political movements being promoted and influenced by social media - there is not much to be said of an intended strategy, as movements - such as #metoo - is not usually because of social media marketing so much as social media users' motivations. These motivations may be social presence or social norm, although it has been said that social norm does not much influence a user's motivation to share. However, with a movement like #metoo, there must be some ethos-related motivation behind it besides proving to your peers that you care. However, as there is no professionally-constructed strategy behind this, we will acknowledge the existence but not dive deep.
Let's go ahead with politicians using social media marketing to win elections or, at the very least, gain some favour with the public. As Heliz Mazouri cleverly puts it, "[...]political campaigns are essentially brand platforms—and as a candidate, [they] are the brand". This puts a whole new importance on social media marketing - it is no longer the little corner of society where a teen has their MySpace. Social media is now arguably one of the biggest parts of our society with engagement reaching incredible heights.
Once the politican's brand platform is formed and they have an audience, their social media marketing officer must then establish a firm strategy that the politician should follow almost to the letter. One article from workfront argues that although Donald Trump's "Twitter rants make it seem as though he tosses catchphrases about willy-nilly, it is likely that his messaging is part of a larger strategy – a carefully orchestrated brand portrayal". Having this brand portrayal will provide the constituents with a certain idea about the candidate, and gives the candidate the ability to directly address the public and perhaps even learn from it.
Overall, this increase of the use of social media marketing in political campaigns has had an effect on how many young people are going out to vote. However, we must consider the question, are they digging deeper to better understand the candidate, or is the social media strategy working that well?
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