The (Prestident-Elect) Donald Trump phenomenon is relentless.
The media are all over him. The newspapers, the news channels and commentators always have been constantly all over tweets the President Elect has sent like no one else.
There are numerous reasons why he won this election – a vulnerable candidate in Clinton, a rebellion against ‘Washington insiders’ and ‘elites’ as well as an overall desire for change of some description.
The Donald not only managed to get his message across en masse, but he managed to (very successfully) manipulate the media in the process. As a reality TV star, there is no surprise that he knows how to unashamedly and amazingly self-promote himself.
Social Media and Twitter particularly is a major factor in the success of President-Elect Donald Trump.
The Donald spent much less than Clinton on overall campaign spending such as ads and events. The Donald spending $897.7M to the Donald’s $429.5M, according to Bloomberg. You even have to say that Trump managed a huge amount of his fundraising through digital outreach.
It is interesting to note, that Clinton spent over $10m more on traditional media than Trump, while his campaign expanded on one of his key strengths and spent much more (over $10m) on online consulting and digital advertising than the Clinton campaign.
Now that we have been through the figures, how did Trump manage to rule the roost on social media during the election?
His tweets are personal
Although you can’t guarantee it; when you see a man tweet something rash at 5am – it looks real.
Just tried watching Saturday Night Live – unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
By contrast, Clinton’s on-message approach looked like they had been thought up and approved by the appropriate focus group…
“I really believe that America’s best days are still ahead of us if we reach for them together!” —Hillary https://t.co/jfd3CXLD1s pic.twitter.com/wuuQj9NrZY
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 7, 2016
His tweets are consistent
I’m not suggesting his message is ever consistent, but his tweeting is usually in the morning, they aim to be entertaining and they are so very often controversial – viral.
Controversial statements go viral
Although this statement is true – of course you don’t need to be controversial to go viral. It is also high risk, but trump probably has a good idea of how far he can push the boundaries – and he clearly doesn’t care too much about it. Clinton didn’t have this luxury.
Let’s be honest, though, Clinton talking about the economy clearly has less traction and shareability than the Donald tweeting about building a wall and getting Mexico to pay for it.
Mexico will pay for the wall!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2016
He has (and always had) a strategy in place
The Donald looks as though he thoroughly enjoys a tweet. However, he has content on Twitter, Vine, YouTube and Instagram, among others and on each platform he chooses his type of messages. Some of these, like his election campaign YouTube channel are somewhat more of a conventional approach to social media that we would expect, in contrast to his Twitter rant profile.
It’s also evident that he has a strategy in place due to the amount of campaign funds which went to digital advertisers; paid ads, graphics, linking up social media with websites, etc.. It is much less obvious, however, if he actually always listens to any of these as he tweets. Which, in the end might have been no bad thing.
He interacts with his fans
When you take a look through his tweets he replies to some comments, arguing with fans or retweeting those who support him. Again this is personal, engaging and very often unprecedented.
He also often responds to requests by retweeting fans. This doesn’t always go to plan, however. Remember that time he retweeted a request by @feckhead, which turned out to be pictures of serial killers Fred & Rosemary West?
As we mentioned in a first look at the social media impact of the US election several months ago the social media stats were behind Obama in the 2008 presidential race and now President-Elect Trump has taken the power of social media in elections to a totally new level.
Another US election has been won over social media. If businesses still doubt the power of this medium, I despair…
