Despite its reputation for live real time information distribution, Twitter was recently part of the most pre-promoted announcement of the 2016 election.
On Sunday, April 12, Hillary Clinton formally announced that she is officially jumping into the presidential race. The news was released via a video posted on her website, hillaryclinton.com, and spread through social media channels within minutes.
The choice of social media, rather than the traditional news outlets, was not surprising, given Clinton’s presence on Twitter since leaving the state department. The move also demonstrates the growth of the social media approach since 2008, when President Obama took to Twitter to announce his victory. According to a study conducted at the University of North Carolina, the announcement was retweeted just 157 times, while according to the same study, his 2012 victory tweet was retweeted more than 800,000 times.
Democrats aren’t the only ones embracing social news distribution. A January Washington Post article claimed that “2016 may yet be the first ‘Instagram election’,” citing Jeb Bush’s choice to announce his super PAC via a homemade smartphone video released through the popular app. (Of course, he was criticized for shooting the video vertically – rookie mistake – but when Instagram squared it off, it was somewhat of a non-issue.)
On the other end of the spectrum, no politician is going to compete with the mayhem a celebrity can cause on social media. When pop star Beyoncé released a surprise 14-track album online in December of 2013, every social media channel was jammed with fans clamoring to get in on the news – and the downloads. Followers were virtually scolding each other to stop uploading or downloading anything not-Beyoncé to stop the crowding. Think screaming, crying Beatleseque fans…in cyberspace.
Likely Politicians won’t elicit that kind of emotional response, but at least in the case of Hillary Clinton, campaign managers are hoping for another kind: dollar signs. Through the pre-promotional build up and release of Hillary’s announcement video, hopes are high that the ensuing momentum will help to raise as much as $2.5 billion for her campaign, according to an article in the New York Times.
Social media is as much a part of our news cycle today as the Sunday paper was in generations past. To find out the best way to channel your message out to your target market, call us at (203) 762-8833. We’d love to help you to strategize, target, and release – whether your approach is like that of Hillary, Beyoncé, or anyone in between.
-BML
