The Social Media Election

janelle.ward@gmail.comwww.janelleward.com

@janelle_ward

All American NightLeiden, the Netherlands

November 6th, 2012

Why is social media important?

• In 2008, the social media winner won the election • In 2012?

iProspect infographic

iProspect infographic

A brief history of e-campaigning• 1996: debut candidate web pages

• 2000: the first internet election

• 2004: fundraising, online organizing

• 2008: my.BarackObama.com, social media

• 2012: nanotargeting, wives of candidates posting on Pinterest

Questions…

1) How are political campaigns using social media to produce the campaign?

2) How are citizens using social media to consume the campaign?

3) How important is (social) media campaigning in determining the winner?

1) How are political campaigns using social media to produce the

campaign?

Obama vs. Romney in the world of social media

–Tumblr: younger, niche audience = more spirited content (77 million blogs)

–Twitter: donations, travel details, personal lives (500 million users)

– Facebook: candidates seek to influence the flow of content (via shares and likes - as of 9/2012, over one billion active users)

Social media in a political context

–YouTube: video ads, personal videos, live chats (800 million users/month)

–Pinterest: Michelle Obama and Ann Romney (over 10 million visits/week)

– Instagram: candid pictures of the candidates (30 million+ accounts)

Facebook vs. Twitter

TWITTER FACEBOOK

1.6 million followers

Mitt Romney

11.7 million likes2.4 million talking

about this

21.6 million followers

Barack Obama

31.7 million likes2.3 million talking

about this

iProspect infographic

Example 1: #Eastwooding• Clint Eastwood speech at

the Republican National Convention

– The Daily Beast; Know your Meme)

• Obama’s official Twitter account posted a photo of Obama seated in a chair with the caption “This seat’s taken.” (55,263 retweets and 22,589 favorites)

Example 2: The second debate

• Second Presidential Debate Tops Super Bowl in Social TV: #3 most social TV event of all time

• Romney’s “binders” comment; Obama campaign’s response: “Mitt Romney's Condescending Views Toward Women” (200,000+ views)

Example 2: The second debate

– 37Tweets Obama's campaign sent out during the second debate

– 117,374Times they were retweeted

– 2Tweets Romney's campaign sent out during the second debate

– 6,810Times they were retweeted (source)

2) How are citizens using social media to consume

the campaign?

iProspect infographic

Example 1: #Eastwooding• During the speech

@InvisibleObama tweeted for the first time, using a picture of an empty chair as its icon. (source)

Example 1: #Eastwooding• In 24 hours, over 90,000 tweets were posted

about Clint Eastwood (source)

Example 1: #Eastwooding• The hashtag #Eastwooding

generated 25,325 tweets in 24 hours

• More than 850 Instagram photos were tagged #Eastwooding

• By the next day, #Eastwooding photos were featured on the Atlantic, the Huffingon Post, New York Daily News, Fox News, etc. (source)

Example 2: The second debate

• “Binders full of women:” - Before the debate was over, there was a Twitter hashtag, a Tumblr, and a Facebook page with over 100,000 fans. The phrase was the third-fastest rising search on Google during the debate. (source)

• Amazon and the Avery durable binders

3) How important is (social) media campaigning in

determining the winner?

It’s hard to say!

• Everyone’s a producer, everyone’s a consumer• Sometimes the tried-and-true campaign tools win out (

buses, planes and politics)• “What’s the return on putting your pants on in the

morning? We don’t know. But we just know it’s bad if you don’t do it.” (Jan Rezab of Socialbakers, in Campaigns Use Social Media to Lure Younger Voters)

• In the end, it might just be Hurricane Sandy…