This November, all eyes were on one event: the 2018 midterm elections.
Regardless of your political allegiance and who you wanted to win, there’s no denying that this round of elections stood out by achieving outstanding voter turn out compared to previous years.
If there was one message that was commonly spread despite political agendas it was the importance of voter registration and participation; a message that was widely and successfully spread across digital media during electoral campaign efforts and that left a lot to learn for digital marketing agencies and brands alike.
Here’s what we can take away from the midterm elections:
1. Influencer marketing is still going strong.
The premise of influencer marketing is simple. We are more likely to perform certain actions if there’s an influential figure in our lives that endorses such behavior.
We see it with social media influencers and their blogs, we see it in celebrity endorsements for advertising campaigns, and in a smaller level we see with our friends and family.
The political sphere is no exception to the power of peer influence.
This election several celebrities took a stand to endorse their favorite candidates, amongst them high profile celebrities with cult followings like Beyonce, Rihanna and Taylor Swift.
Insights from The Guardian show that within 24 hours of Swift’s endorsement, over 65,000 new people registered to vote.
2. Leveraging social connections is important now more than ever.
If there’s one thing I always try to emphasize on is the social component of social media.
As someone who works at a digital marketing agency as a social media specialist, it can be easy to get caught up in one’s work and all the technicalities and rules involved, forgetting the essence of the platforms that we work with in the process.
Social media was built around the idea of building social connections and no one leverages this more than democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke.
Beto O’Rourke’s social strategy was largely focused on forming authentic connections with the public by staying true to himself and true to his audience.
With a Twitter managed only by himself, and constant Facebook live streams outlining the ins and outs of his electoral journey, Beto managed to quickly go from a political underdog to a well loved and highly esteemed candidate.
According to Statista insights, out of the 15.4 million interactions generated by Democrats on social media, Beto O’Rourke was solely responsible for 1.6 million interactions both on Facebook and Instagram.
Not only did his focus on directly communicating to his audience gain him the love and support of his followers, it also helped him raise $38 million for his campaign.
Beto’s biggest appeal was being more than a face with a political agenda, and personally connecting and showing that he cared.
Through strong relationships built on social media, Beto was able to target an audience that is key for the Democratic party: voters in the 18-29 range, a demographic that has previously been highly incentivized to vote.
3. Building community as an incentive to vote.
Leading up to and during the elections, platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat integrated features into their websites and apps to encourage and remind people to vote.
Some features were simple reminders to vote, while others consisted of stickers, filters, and geolocations that demonstrated one’s participation in the voting process.
These features have proven to be successful since they not only remind the public to vote, but they provide incentives whether it’s belonging to a community of voters regardless of political affiliation, or whether its receiving a reward for participation.
Insights from a Facebook experiment that tested a voting reminder showed that those who were exposed to a reminder that included profile pictures of Facebook friends that had clicked on an “I Voted” button were more likely to click on the “I Voted” button and were more likely to go and vote, further incentivizing others to do the same.
It’s like the grown up version of getting a golden star in elementary school that gives you bragging rights for not only doing your part but also becoming a part of something big.
Digital media’s involvement in politics is getting more intertwined each day and there’s no sign of it slowing down.
While using these takeaways won’t necessarily guarantee an electoral win , it does show the power that digital and social media has in terms of influencing people and the voter turn out for the 2018 mid term election is solid proof.
sources:
www.usatoday.com
www.theguardian.com
www.statista.com
www.socialmediatoday.com