Everyone knows Donald Trump is very active on Twitter but now it’s official. Out of everyone running for president, Trump pretty much killed it on social media.
Hadas Gold reported at Politico:
Trump dominated rivals on social media in 2015
In 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dominated his rivals on social media, causing news cycles to pivot on the click of a Tweet button — or even a Retweet button.
That’s the consensus of nearly every social-media analytics firm and expert. What it may mean as the campaign unfolds into 2016 is less of a unanimous vote.
One reason Trump seemed to run the board on social media: Unlike other candidates, whose feeds were carefully curated and run by staff, Trump tweeted, Facebooked and Instagrammed directly to followers, often seemingly off the top of his head.
“He says things others won’t and can get direct access to people without a filter,” said Zachary Moffatt, Mitt Romney’s former digital director and cofounder of digital strategy firm Targeted Victory.
But is it Trump the candidate or Trump the reality television star that’s getting all the notice? As a celebrity for decades, Trump had 2.76 million Twitter followers on Jan. 1, 2015, months before he declared his run over the summer. Hillary Clinton, who also spent decades in the public eye, was not far behind in early January of 2015, with 2.6 million followers. Trump now has more than 5 million followers, but Clinton is close behind him at 4.8 million.
Politico isn’t the only outlet to take notice of Trump’s social media presence.
Hannah Jane Parkinson writes at The Guardian:
Can Donald Trump’s social media genius take him all the way to the White House?
In sentences I never thought I’d write: Donald Trump is still riding high in the polls as part of his bid to be the next President of the United States. Late last month, the Republican nomination hopeful dropped a massive 12 percentage points in a single week following comments on creating a Muslim Database, but it speaks to his unfathomable popularity that even with such a vertiginous fall he was still hitting 31%, and since then, his ratings have climbed ever higher.
If there’s anything that goes some way to explaining Trump’s popularity in the midst of his quasi-fascistic views that reached a nadir with his call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, it is his social media prowess. Trump has more than 5.5 million Twitter followers and 4.5 million Facebook fans. He has a presence across YouTube, Vine, Instagram and Periscope. Dan Pfeiffer, Obama’s highly-regarded former digital and social media guru, has said Trump is “way better at the internet than anyone else in the GOP which is partly why he is winning.”
Twitter has even compiled some of Trumps biggest 2015 tweets:
We need much tougher, much smarter leadership – and we need it NOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 14, 2015
Our country is facing a major threat from radical Islamic terrorism. We better get very smart, and very tough, FAST, before it is too late!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2015
My prayers are with the victims and hostages in the horrible Paris attacks. May God be with you all.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2015
For those that don’t think a wall (fence) works, why don’t they suggest taking down the fence around the White House? Foolish people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2015
People have got to stop working to be so politically correct and focus all of their energy on finding solutions to very complex problems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2015
Love him or hate him, Trump has used social media more effectively than any other Republican.
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Comments
Like it or not Trump is outdoing the other candidates on everything,
He’s sort of like the New England Patriots. Everyone hates them but they keep on winning.
They’ve lost 3 of their last 5, lol.
Since they won their first Superbowl, how many times have they failed to make the playoffs? How many times have they failed to win their division?
What are they going to be doing in two weeks?
Right. They are not winning.
CNN is boosting Trump 24/7. CNN hates Republicans. Do the math.
CNN attacks Trump 24/7.See? All you’ve got is more ad hominem.
You just can’t deal with facts and argument.
Or your own lies, published for all to see. It must sting!!!
I down rated my own post. Everything after 24/7 was an accidental paste from old clipboard item. Sorry
Trump’s Twitter is awesome
Every week he says something more awesome than the previous week.
The twitters of his campaign team: Cohen and Pierson are both awesome too.
Regardless of whether any candidate is or isn’t doing well, how is their saying something on Twitter different or better than saying it to a microphone, camera, or recorder? Not everyone follows Twitter, but all Twitter followers watch the news, read online and print news media, etc.
I remember when everyone thought eight track tapes, and then cassette tapes, and then CDs, and then MP3s, etc., were the best thing ever. They confused an improved medium for an improved product or message.
Isn’t it just as possible – for any candidate – to lie on Twitter just as easily as on other media?
Meant to add… depending on which researcher you access, somewhere around 6-8% of American adults use Twitter with any regularity, and about a third of them are not regular voters.
How many people read web sites or watch a news show that quote a Trump tweet?
How many people read tweets that quote a web site or news show?
Twitter and tweets do not exist in a vaccuum. What a candidate says on one medium is the same message being said on other media. The glorification of Twitter as some sort of wondrous, fabulous medium is unwarranted.
Pres. ScamWOW is reputedly a maven of social media, too.
Hmmm…