With the 2016 Presidential Elections just a few days away, the world is in heated debate as to who the new US president will be. A new leader will certainly bring about change to the current global political landscape and climate. But how exactly did it come to pass that the world has become so concerned and at most, well-informed, about this year's United States elections?
Once we take a step back and leave the politics at the door; we immediately notice an amazing phenomenon when considering America's last three presidential elections: Their Social Media Marketing campaigns. There's a reason most people around the world can't stop talking and debating US politics, even in the face of their own domestic political concerns. Even in the UK, we just can't seem to keep Clinton and Trump out of our online searches. So how has US politics pulled this off, and how can we apply their successful social media marketing tactics to our own growing businesses?
The Obama effect
Strong Social Media Presence Equates to Strong Brand Awareness!
US President Barak Obama pioneered an effective media and marketing campaign during his 2008 presidential run. Known as "The Facebook Election", Obama's campaign would signal the first time that digital marketing tactics, like the use of social media, were used to great effect during an electoral drive.
The "Change we can believe in" marketing campaign was so thorough, that by the end of the campaign run Obama dominated social media and reached over 5 million supporters spread across 15 different social networks. He secured over 2.5 million followers on Facebook; 115, 000 on Twitter; and he achieved over 50 million viewers on his YouTube channel. While many of us might not attract as many social followers to our own business, the core principles are no less applicable to our own social marketing campaigns.
“No other candidate has ever integrated the full picture the way [Obama] has, that’s what’s really new about his campaign,”-Michael Malbin, Executive Director of the Campaign Finance Institute.
What you can learn from the US leaders' 2016 elections
By treating each of their political campaigns as a social marketing campaign, current US election front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, are employing strategies and techniques that one would usually align with big brand marketing. Taking a page out of Obama's book, each has been successful in their own right and been exemplary in their marketing savvy. Here's how you can apply these social media tactics yourself:
The Donald Trump Campaign
Evoke Emotion:
As a former reality television star, Trump has realised that the best means for him to engage with followers and potential voters is to try and strike an emotional chord. He has achieved this through some strict policies and promises, as well as some rather outlandish comments and statements. Many have criticised Trump for these observations, but none can deny that the desired effect has been achieved and that these hot topics have seen his camp benefit from some enormous free press.
Your business can benefit from evoking social emotion by including a positive message or aligning yourself with a cause within your community or target audience.
Content:
In marketing, content is king, and Trump's content is always provocative. What's more is that he has ensured that this "juicy" content is efficiently disseminated – Trump's social media activity has seen him the most active candidate on Twitter, ensuring that he builds strong ties with the community. His followers (and even Trump detractors and naysayers) have made sure that he is the most hashtagged and frequently re-tweeted candidate.
Use content to engage with your social audience. Touching on key topics and producing content of value to your readers are key elements in getting your content noticed and ensuring a strong, faithful following. Content that you write yourself by sharing your knowledge, experience and opinion is usually the most valuable content; this kind of content is what cements your voice. You have something to say, after all!
Relevance:
Trump's clever content – no matter how taboo, or criticised – creates immediate traction. His simple, straightforward and concise way of speaking also aids in making his content easy to digest and share. The Trump brand has been in existence well before his presidential aspirations, and he has done well to leverage his name and 'image'. He does not limit himself to the confines of political correctness, which has seen him identify with the common man and woman. By not subscribing to traditional political conventions, Trump's speeches are deemed real, transparent and relevant. His lack of political etiquette has therefore strengthened his position. Consumers appreciate businesses with a simple and honest approach to communications – and seemingly, so too do voters.
So follow Trump's example – be relevant! You don't need to use fancy jargon or try to educate your audiences. By being relevant, on-topic and by streamlining your content, you'll keep your audience coming back for more.
Social Media and CTA (Call to Action):
The Trump slogan extends the campaigns reach as a call to action to "Make America Great Again". Followers and supporters immediately engage with his message on a personal level. As an added measure of assurance, he has successfully created trending hashtags for followers to use which have done well in edging him above any of Hillary's social media campaign attempts. Through the #AmericaFirst and #Imwithyou tags, his success on social media legitimises his self-confidence and even seems to add credence to some of his claims and statements.
Your individual Call to Action should be clear and have some value attached to it. Tell your audience what you'd like them to do, and delight them with an offer in return for doing so.
The Hilary Clinton Campaign
Social Media and Live Streams:
Clinton has not shied away from adopting a broad social media approach. She has reached out to the younger demographic through diverse platforms and utilised newer social avenues such as Instagram, Snapchat and Periscope to efficiently get in touch with her target groups. She is the first candidate to live- stream a major rally using the Periscope platform successfully.
It is best practice to do a social media audit before you start any campaign in order to see what channels you will best reach your personas (or target audience) on; sometimes, this means branching out and possibly including a variety of newer platforms in order to increase the reach and scope of your core message.
The Importance of Email Marketing:
The power of an email campaign should never be overlooked and works hand in hand with social media tools to gain trust and further put a personal stamp on your brand's message or voice.
A strong contender on social media, it's Hillary Clinton's email marketing campaign that has seen her make the most headway. Incorporating animated GIFs and stylised header images, Clinton's is the only email campaign that has seen any real success with a survey concluding that out of 800 users, 59% admit to donating to her campaign. Campaign statistics also reveal that 46% email recipients subscribed. Highly targeted and relevant email content is not nearly enough to maintain a good subscription ratio – you also need to make sure your recipients open your email. Open rates increase if your recipients know you as the sender, and if your subject line is powerful (among a few other things):
The All-powerful Subject Line:
As subject lines are meant to be engaging and captivating, the presidential hopeful incorporated crucial issues and a high level of personalisation in her subject lines. Hillary's most successful subject lines revolved around current news events, which garnered 23% of successful views, compared to 17% of invite-based emails that were read. Some of her emails also featured her husband Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea addressing the reader, which further enforced the personalised aspect.
The subject line is what gets your audience to either open or reject your email. By personalising your subject lines, you benefit from creating an instant relation with your target audience; by making them creative and original, they stand out from the sea of emails already flooding reader's inboxes.
CTA (Call to Action):
Clinton's mailers feature very little CSS or layout and are mostly text-based. This simple approach ensures that her message is fully received and the inclusion of a highlighted CTA, "Donate $1", is always clearly visible at the end of each email.
Simplifying your emails, blog content and social media messages are important so readers may clearly understand your CTA and identify what it may be. Your CTA should offer something meaningful to each client and entice them to follow through with an action.
Here's how to US presidential front-runners weigh up (as of November 2016):
Google: Trump 674 million results / Clinton 544 million results
Google searches for each candidate returns strong results for both, with Donald Trump leading the way in searches.
Klout: Clinton rating, 95 / Trump rating,89
Klout uses social media analytics and news to track the online social influence of its users and provides each with a score ranging from 0 to 100. Scores for the two candidates (obviously) rate really high, with Hillary outscoring Trump on media relevance.
LinkedIn: Clinton 559,756 followers / Trump no profile
With no official LinkedIn profile, Clinton wins this contest with a massive amount of followers. There is a "Donald Trump for President" group which has 5,200 members but is not an official Trump page. Trump's lack of involvement on the LinkedIn front serves to prove that you don't have to be "everywhere" to still successfully lead the social media wave.
Twitter: Trump 12.9 million followers / Clinton 10.1 million followers
With over 32K tweets (four times more than Hillary), Trump has utilised Twitter extremely well; whether it was to argue points or make questionable statements.
Facebook: Trump 11 million followers/ Clinton 7.8 million followers
As with Twitter, Trump beats out Hillary on Facebook as well. Starting off with almost double the followers, Clinton's followers have increased steadily as election time draws nearer.
Instagram: Trump 2.8 million followers / Clinton 2.8 million followers
The Instagram followers were quite close, with Trump inching out by nearly half a million more and around 1,180 posts. Hillary's Instagram activity stepped up drastically over the last two months, and she now has an even amount of follwers as Trump thanks in part to her personalised images and memes.
The good news is that you don't have to be a Trump or Hillary – increased and engaging social media marketing serves every business with positive growth.
An Integrated Approach:
Social marketing cannot stand alone. A fully integrated approach to marketing is the cornerstone of every successful campaign and business; the crux lies in seeing digital marketing as an organism which only functions well if the core message flows through everything you do - from social media to landing pages, eBooks, blogs and more. At Struto we understand this, and we offer a full spectrum of these essential tools in our approach to Inbound Marketing.
