Grassroots Campaigning via Social Media: Mobilization and Fundraising on Facebook Abstract: 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. Social media platforms are among the most visited websites in the United States, comprising three of the top 10 most frequented sites as of February 2015 (YouTube #2, Facebook #3, and Twitter #7). Given their widespread use among the public, it is not surprising that nearly every member of Congress and would-be legislator has a social media presence. These politicians provide
President Obama not only was the first African American to be elected, but was also the first presidential candidate to effectively use social media as a major campaign strategy. In many ways the election of Barack Obama mimicked that of John F. Kennedy, both having changed politics forever. For John F. Kennedy it was the television and for Obama it was the internet. Barack Obama’s strategy of using the internet as a campaigning tool was a key to his victory in the election. He used the internet to organize his supporters. He had many more friends and followers on his Facebook and Twitter than his opponent John McCain did. The social media landscape looks a lot different now. There has been an increasing number of social media tools now than there were
How presidential candidates present themselves in the media can be proven to impact election results dramatically. Political figure using social media did not start to become more common until after the 2008 election because Twitter and Facebook were just recently created, but by looking at data from the past two elections it shows that the news presidential candidates put on their social media can correlate with how people will decide to vote. After researching what topics political candidates post and how they present themselves in the media with election results it can be established that a candidate’s presence in social media can have an impact on how people might vote in an election. “By 2008 candidate websites were standard and campaigns
Overall, our theory that social media use is a cause for voter turnout was not supported through our tests. Our results from our hypothesis chi-square test, our regression analysis, and also our predicted probabilities test show that social media use does not have a significant effect on voter turnout in the 2012 presidential election. Our theory may have been flawed in thinking that less people are dependent on social media than we originally thought. This can been seen in our graphic that a majority people do not use social media at all for obtaining political information. Social media sites are still on the rise and are not as widely/frequently used as we previously anticipated. The millennial generation and generation z are the most common
Social media is allowing government communicators to connect and converse with constituents in ways not possible through traditional communications. In a study that included a digital ethnography and in-depth interviews with federal social media managers, one interviewee noted that more than half of their interactions on Twitter were responding to citizens (Mergel, 2016).
Claim: Today, I invite you all to consider why social media is a necessary part of politics in todays’ society.
This research examines the impact and the degree of which social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have over the voters interest in the political process. This research examines how politicians, bloggers, and political advocates can use their social media pages to influence persons who do not participate in the political process but are highly active on social media outlets. A mixed-method approach using content analysis and a survey revealed that voters value personable content over trustworthiness and general electability. Voters received more positively towards politicians, bloggers
The tech-savvy generation on the rise no longer uses Freedom of speech through the press, but rather, social media outlets. Following this movement is Bernie Sanders, who uses social media as a driving force of his race for the democratic nomination. Originally, as an Independent Senator of Washington, Bernie lacked the popularity that some of the other candidates achieved. Sanders then decided to align his political campaign with the Democratic Party, in hope to achieve the nomination for candidacy. The “practical and successful Legislator” campaign desires to change the current status quo by focusing his objectives on “universal healthcare purchased by the state, publicly funded elections, free higher education, more protectionist trade policies and a redistributive tax system that raises money for job-creating infrastructure projects” (Roberts, Dan). Sanders advocates his objective to voters all over social media demographically attracting the young white generation as a result. This paper will examine how Sanders social media strategy is used to accomplish his objective, by reaching out to his target audience and how he could use a different social media strategy to increase his audience.
The almost omnipresent Internet transforms our lives, connecting us to family, friends, and the world in ways inconceivable only a few years ago. Through social media, we actively participate in creating, editing, and consuming a never-ending stream of data. Private corporations and protagonists of political or social change all vie to reach and engage highly targeted
14-10-2017: He commented on his travel to Virginia to support a friend who would make a great governor for the commonwealth. He also commented on being sent by the president to give thanks for the support and to elect the new governor of Virginia. He also Praised the governor elect and his support on economy growth, cut taxes, fight foe safe VA and affordable energy and coal.
Communication has greatly improved in the recent past with the use of the internet and mobile communication devices such as mobile phones. In the political arena, communication is an important aspect and the more the communication channels, the better. The internet has boosted communication a lot and has made it easier and cheaper. For example, politicians today can communicate to their followers or to others through the social media through facebook, Twitter and such. This helps them to be able to reach people in distant places; worldwide and also to communicate important information to a wide audience and in a fast manner. Mobile devices including mobile phones, tablets and ipads have also facilitated faster and more effective communication for politicians. Political communication is quite crucial and requires a fast and effective way of communicating which today, has been facilitated through the internet technologies and mobile devices (In Giasson, et al., 2014).
Social media is going to be a key component for my campaign. I would like to reach and interact with an age group ranging from about 12 to 18 years old. This age group is heavily invested in online communication and social media. This age group would also benefit significantly from the development of social relationships end its effect on long term health. Social media allows people to interact through online mobile devices. (Eytan, et al., 2011) This interaction or socialization can be used to benefit the health and mortality outlook for many people. The most common platforms for social media are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace, and Yammer. (Social media is the message for occ health, 2011) The types of communication platforms that would be most useful to my campaign are Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These are open media platforms allowing free access, while others such as Yammer and LinkedIn are closed or open only to specific users. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are also the most appropriate tools for my campaign because they are the mainstay for the target age group. My target population has a high techno-literacy rate, and is very adept at using the chosen platforms’ would use these to start a communication platform around the benefits of social relationships, and their link to improved health outcomes. Studies show that 75% of online news consumers get information via email or forwarded through these social platforms.
Kriti Gautam Professor Sherry Sharifian Federal Government 2305-71433 28 October 2017 Donald Trump and Mike Pence on Social Media: A Study on How They Use It Social media is capable of being an effective means of communication, if one knows how to use it properly. “Ethical and social factors need to be considered when communicating to the public, through social media” (Bergal). Elected leaders should not be afraid to speak their minds, but they should really think before they post. They should not post if the post would cause harm to or insult a certain group of people. Whatever they post in social media should almost resemble what is written in their “official” government pages. I conducted a study on Donald Trump and Mike Pence’s social media pages, from October 12 to October 25, 2017 (14 days), to see if they use their social media effectively or not, and the analysis and discussion of this study is presented in this paper.
Social media and elected leaders Social media has become one of the most essential parts in human life in order to communicate with friends, families, relatives and society. The development of nations depends upon the way of how people use the social media. A part from local people even government are taking media as one of the major factors to put their serious and important notice of day to day activities through social media and let local people know what is going on in country. Whenever we read, see or listen to social media we can see the active participation of elected leaders in social media. I personally believe that, social media is one of the best forums for elected leaders.
I think that the social media is a great platform for the politicians to communicate with the citizens
The authors’ first task in their research was to come up with a mutually agreed-upon and easy to understand definition of social media. For a starting or “base” definition, the authors cite the Federal Web Managers Council (FWMC), a group of federal government specialists assigned to develop best practices for federal agency Web sites and general online presence. Many information technology (IT) arms of various federal agencies have adopted and