Social media has always had a large impact in getting people engaged on campaigns and election conversations, with candidates and their supporters and detractors. With people going on Twitter to voice there opinions on all things going on in politics on Social Media.
Candidates are using Social Media to appeal to a broader audience, especially in 2016. The Twitter accounts and various Social Media accounts are used to get the message out on upcoming elections, as well as campaigns which they use for advertising and outreach to hopeful voters.
Particularly it is important because voters, especially millennials (Which is mostly they target audience when using Social Media).
According to the Pew Research Center “Following the 2014 mid-term elections, 16 percent of registered voters followed candidates for office, political parties or elected officials on social media, up 10 percent since 2010.”
Those number seem low but, but in actuality the millennials as well as member of generation Z are increasingly showing more interest in politicians on social media as well as are registering to vote.
Most things that are taking place on Twitter are polls that people take in seeing as to who is the right fit as president that share there similar views. Data from Twitter polls, has a couple of advantages over traditional polls. Twitter polls can be used to share this data with the public, campaigns and journalists. It is faster, which means it can pick up late-breaking surges for different candidates.
An example is a poll that was taken on how Americans felt about Global Warming and the influence a Presidential Candidate has in reducing it.
Americans more likely to vote for a candidate who supports #climateaction in #election2016: https://t.co/RxJMvdYqk2 pic.twitter.com/tJovSeYp3L
— Yale Climate Program (@YaleClimateComm) May 2, 2016
Ralph Legnini, senior creative strategist at DragonSearch, a digital marketing agency."It's not just about motivating this generation to vote, but getting their friends to," "They need to create advocates where one kid will get others to vote.”It is still not clear as to how Social media will influence on who is elected in the presidency. It is still early for campaigns to see which efforts work and which ones don’t work in appealing to voters.