Will the Ruler of Social Media be the next POTUS?

So a few days ago I saw this. And I got excited; it looked like such a good ‘Bern’ regardless of whom you support.

And while Snopes ultimately showed the Sanders tweet to have been falsely contrived, it got me to wondering how crazy the social media war might actually be. I don’t recall the enormous activity and direct attacks even just four years ago, so how are the candidates working the Interwebs, and is it doing any good?

In 2008 Obama revolutionized presidential campaigns by actively recruiting volunteers, raising funds and swaying voters with his active social media campaigns (Caitlin B., 2016). Now, according to the Hileman Group (Caitlin B., 2016), it’s a candidate’s most vital tool. They use it to communicate to and with their constituents, and also each other (Peterson, H., 2016).

According to CNET (Crist & Petrakovitz, 2016), just a month ago the then-expansive pool of candidates had gone beyond Twitter and Facebook to engage voters on YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Reddit. One can assume they were avidly vying for the vote of the Millennial, currently the largest generation of potential voters (Fry, 2015) and biggest consumers of most of these social media channels (Lynch, 2014).

As of February 8 of this year, Trump topped Facebook and Twitter, with more than five million likes and followers on the respective platforms (Crist & Petrakovitz, 2016). Clinton was second by a hair on Twitter, while Carson came in second on Facebook. Surprisingly, Sanders, who is alleged to be the choice of Millennials, trailed all three by significant amounts, though he ranked highest in YouTube subscribers. Trump is the number one for GOP candidates, but is back on top on Instagram, with Clinton just behind him on both platforms.

But is this working?

Earlier this month, the Hileman Group (Baker, C., 2016) scored each candidate to determine who might become the next president, if only based on their social media savvy. Measurements came from their Klout score, the number of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram followers (combined), and their website’s power (as defined by popularity, size and backlinks, to name a few factors). The results showed Clinton that the social media presidency would be declared for Clinton, whose dominance in Klout score and domain authority surpasses the enormous social media presence of Trump.

And after tonight’s campaign results, these reuslts sure seems to represent the current state of the presidential election, both Trump and Clinton dominated the polls with big wins each in three states, and Sanders running closely behind. It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out in the long run and to learn the degree of impact social media has on the highest office in the country and the leader of the free world.

References

Baker, C. (2016, March 9). Who would win the social media presidency? Hileman Group. Retrieved from http://www.hilemangroup.com/blog/march-2016/who-wins-the-social-media-presidency.aspx.

Crist, R. & Petrakovitz, C. (2016, February 8). How the 2016 presidential candidates measure up on social media. CNET. Retrieved from http://www.cnet.com/news/2016-elections-comparing-presidential-candidates-on-social-media/.

Fry, R. (2015, January 16). This year, Millennials will overtake Baby Boomers. Pew Research. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/16/this-year-millennials-will-overtake-baby-boomers/.

Lynch, A. (2014). Can you hear me now? Reaching five generations with your message. Bottom Line Conversations. Retrieved from www.generationaledge.com.

Peterson, H. (2016). Twitter wars ensue between presidential candidates. Talk 650 KSTE. Retrieved from http://kste.iheart.com/onair/heathers-digital-news-57084/twitter-wars-ensue-between-presidential-candidates-14344714/.