With the “in” forms of social media changing by the month, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has the interesting challenge of presenting Clinton in an authentic manner on the trendiest platforms. Her campaign must balance reaching the largest number of millennials, without appearing to be trying too hard. A USA Today article describes Clinton’s campaign as similar to a media startup. This is interesting, because traditionally we think of politics as vastly different from the startup world. Startups are fast-moving and efficient, while politics and government are slow and bureaucratic. Nevertheless, in today’s political climate, a successful campaign must market their candidate just as a Silicon Valley startup would market their product. Obama’s digital director in 2012, Teddy Goff, said that then, all that was required was very strong Facebook and Twitter accounts (1). Now, a much more complex social media strategy is required.
Clinton and Trump have different ways of approaching media. Trump’s campaign is based off of brand awareness (2). His advantage is that his controversial statements and previous celebrity grant him free publicity and buzz across social media. Clinton has to work harder to reach people on social media, but rather than simply building awareness she attempts to convert the viewers with call to actions such as registering on her site and volunteering. In Himanee Gupta-Carlson’s Re-Imagining the Nation: Storytelling and Social Media in the Obama Campaigns, she describes how with the onset of the digital age, the entire nation creates stories about candidates from the bottom up. Instead of just television campaigns, Clinton is attempting to create a conversation across numerous forms of social media that make you feel like you’re part of the story.
Clinton’s Snapchat account is a great lens through which to dissect her media strategy in the digital age. Snapchat, which over 100 million people use every day, over half of which are under 25, is a perfect medium for Clinton to reach millennials (hootsuite). After following Clinton’s Snapchat stories for a few weeks, it is clear that her campaign knows the audience, and tailors the messaging to reach younger viewers. She Snapchats phrases that younger people use such as “With the squad!,” and “Yaaas.”
(Clinton’s Snapchat)
Given Clinton’s difficulties with appearing authentic to millennials, this may come off as overly catering to young people. No matter your stance, it is fairly obvious that Clinton would not be using Snapchat, or using phrases like “with the squad” for any purposes other than segmented marketing. Nevertheless, following her social media, including Snapchat, has made me feel like I’m more a part of her story. It also helps that Clinton herself doesn’t take her new social media use too seriously.
Overall, Clinton is approaching social media in an intelligent manner, making use of the available mediums to target millennials.