Donald Trump Outdid All Rivals on Social Media in 2015

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 2015In 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:

Love him or hate him, Trump has used social media more effectively than any other Republican.

Tags: Donald Trump, Social Media

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