Social Media And Its Impact On Society Essay

One benefit of social media is that it gives presidential hopefuls unparalleled opportunities to connect with voters. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are widely

From the Huffington Post in the article “The Game Changer: Social Media and the 2016 Presidential Election” author R. Kay Green (2015) discusses strategies the candidates are using in order to win over the minority vote, which is to connect the millennial generation with social media. Specifically, social media has been shown to improve voting patterns because the younger generation can see and read about the election through social media. For instance, the subject matter first appeared in the 2008 elections as Barack Obama was the first candidate to use social media to his advantage, with this strategy the candidate was able to gain more voters. Quickly, Obama’s campaign tactic is obviously seen throughout the 2016 election with majority of the candidates now appearing on more than one technology platform. Throughout the article R. Kay Green uses ethos, pathos, and logos to support and express the impact that social media has had on the 2016 presidential elections.

While there has been a lot of negative feedback from the results of the election, both campaigns should see social media platforms, particularly Twitter, as a catalyst for future change. The use of social media during the 2016 election has granted several candidates, not just the major party candidates, plenty of media exposure to a differentiated group of voters. Additionally, social media grants candidates more time to directly communicate with voters on issues that they are particularly passionate about. Furthermore, candidates have the opportunity to use feedback from social media sites to predict future winners of the popular vote well before the election. The millennial demographic has not held back with their opinions on issues and the results of the election; therefore, candidates and their campaign teams should take social media and the information it provides into serious consideration when partaking in such large-scale

It was 2011. President Barak Obama was 3 years into his first term as President of the United States, and set his sights on another one. Winning the 2012 election would be a challenge though, with many people tuning out of broadcast television, one of the main ways political candidates advertise. Enter social media marketing, more specifically Facebook. Obama’s campaign made an unprecedented turn to social media to gain a lead in the election, and eventually a win for Barak Obama. Nate Lubin, Director of Digital Marketing for the Obama for America campaign says on Facebook’s business marketing page, “Facebook allowed us to reach all of our constituencies, where they were and with the content we needed them to see and engage with.” If Obama’s campaign had to be innovative in 2012, how did the candidates of the 2016 election use his success with social media to further their own campaigns in a new, social media driven society? Companies now work to not only get content to people it will resonate with most, but analyze the psyche of social media users in order to better target them with content more likely to be received by them. With digital media playing an unprecedented role in the political campaign arena, psychological profiling is not just being employed to micro target a specific voter through social media, but successfully getting the right messages through to people who will best receive them.

Throughout history, presidential candidates have capitalized to newspapers, radio, television and now social media to inform about the campaign proposals. In the middle of the Digital Age, social media platforms such Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn performed an important role during the US presidential elections 2016.

Social media usage in political campaigns is becoming more prevalent in the current political sphere. Candidates use social media in their campaigns for a number of different reasons. Social media is used in order to advertise their platforms to younger potential voters who have historically been absent from the polls on election day. In fact, Straus, et al. (2013) and Serazio (2014) found in their research that social media allows the politicians to speak directly to their constituents and discuss issues that are important to their potential voters.

Along With, Presidential candidates throughout their campaigns used social media platforms to connect with people to increase their public liking and possible votes creating a direct line approach to voters. Despite the efforts of social media having a positive impact on the presidential campaign, it caused more drama through false accusations by news outlets trying to back their parties getting us the voters on their side, and voting for who they

Social media is having a much greater impact on these electoral campaigns than we even realize. The Obama campaign of 2008 is considered one of the greatest achievements of social media. Sophisticated at the time, it mobilized supporters to make small donations and organized a massive voter turnout in key cities and states. Now, in 2016, everyone already knows how to do it. But what is really interesting is how social media are replacing the conventional political tactics and propaganda that have existed since television played an important role for the first time in 1960. I think that social medias are changing the way of making the political campaign today, because social medias have an essential power among voters. The trick is always the same: to get the message between the sender and

Social media websites have been gaining popularity and record amounts of users since the early 2000s, but in recent years social media has started to have an important role in presidential campaigns. Barack Obama, president of the United States from 2009 to 2017, is regarded as the first “social media president” and since his time in office, the use of social media has only continued to expand.

“Communication is the essence of a political campaign.” Proper communication allows a presidential candidate to get his or her message across. This translates to a lot of votes. To acquire the support needed to win the election, candidates must master the latest media methods that provide effective and efficient mass-communication. The new technological mediums of each era, such as the radio in the 1920s, television in the 1950s, and today’s Internet and social media platforms, give the candidates the opportunity to control their campaign and the potential to reach a larger audience than ever before. By eliminating the middle man role of the traditional news media, presidential candidates can now capitalize on the latest advances in technology

A way for practitioners to manage reputation on social media is by monitoring, reacting, and providing proactive strategies for candidates (Virgillito, 2014). Figure 1.5 displays the top 2016 Presidential candidates Facebook page “likes” from 2015 to 2016, and is an example of how reputation can help with building followers on social media. The graph shows how candidates who led in 2015 have since dropped out of the race or are currently leading in the 2016 primary, which is likely due to their reputation. With the graph in mind, communications practitioners should reflect on the following questions: Can a candidate’s reputation on social media increase or decrease their profile page "likes?” Can their reputation on social media give an indication of who voters are likely to support in the presidential

Website creation is huge for almost anything. Blogs, fundraising efforts, funny cat videos. The internet has it all, and with the click of a button or a one-word Google search, anyone can find almost anything. One of the most recent success stories of a politician using the internet to run a successful campaign is former President Barrack Obama. The grassroots campaign reached out to young people whose lives were highly digitized, and this use of modern technology is the reasoning behind Obama’s two term success story (Levenshus, 2010). Obama’s campaign raised money and informed the public of his policies in a highly effective way. 66 percent of people aged 18 to 24 voted for Obama in 2008, while about 45 percent of people aged 65 and older voted for him in the same year (Cornell University, 2008). The general beliefs of certain age demographics may play a role, but these numbers alone do not tell the full story. Voter turnout rate for young people in 2008 jumped by over ten percent from 2004. Obama reached a demographic that often gets left behind in elections by utilizing the technology that they were so engrossed in. Then, in the last election cycle, there was a major shift in how politicians reach the electorate. Social media, and the infamous tweets of Donald Trump, set a precedent in 2016.

While recent studies examine social media adoption by politicians, this study follows in the path of Gainous and Wagner (2014) by examining the content of social media communications from U.S. Senators and candidates for the Senate. We develop a marketing-based theory to explain which candidates are more likely to use social media for mobilization and fundraising. Through content analysis of over 15,000 Facebook posts made by candidates for the U.S. Senate, our analysis provides insight into the determinants of grassroots behavior on social media. We find that grassroots campaigning more commonly among challengers and Tea Party candidates who lack the name recognition and resources of more established candidates. Additionally, race characteristics, such as competitiveness and the relative positioning of candidates, influences social media posting strategies, with candidates in competitive races and candidates trailing their opponent more actively engaging in online grassroots campaigning.

In the past few years, the frequent use of social media changed not only on how individuals communicate but also how political campaigns are handled. The government and several politicians are highly dependable to this because it is a way in which they can communicate, argue and gather ideas of what the common people will say. The transformation of media has impacted the political campaigns of those who have been able to best exploit them. Social media optimization, the term used in which an individual uses social media outlets to acquire publicity of something. Basically, politicians are highly dependable to communicating sites to increase their awareness to the citizens. This is when politicians strategically disseminate information, communicate to gather ideas and respond to what may people sees them. However, social media optimization is likened to be a softcopy in which the public citizens tend to conceive a certain ad or posts that talk about accomplishments without apprehending if it is truly done in the community. So, social media optimization has pros and cons to both

Social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Flicker, internet websites, and blogs are becoming mainstream attracting a younger more technology savvy voter. Many candidates in the last elections learned to use these mediums so not to overlook tech savvy voters and learned how to use these to their advantage. Candidates took to the internet to raise awareness, state views, and even