Political candidates have always sought out new ways to appeal to their supporters, and as more Americans have cultivated a social media presence, so too have their political candidates. “Social media” is a catchphrase for media that is interactive and permits some level of networked relationship between individuals or between individuals and groups. So, for example, Facebook and Twitter are commonly used examples of social media, because individuals use these portals to interact with others in ways that are more complex than would be permitted by traditional Web sites, or by the use of blogs or e-mail. Individuals may post political content of their own, or they may view political content posted by others (personal acquaintances, political candidates, or political groups they have joined). Services such as YouTube permit users to post videos, or to view videos posted by others. Videos that elicit a large number of views are said to have “gone viral,” as was the case with the “I Got a Crush on Obama” video posted by a fan during the Campaign of 2008. According to a 2011 poll by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 65 percent of all adult users of the Internet use a social networking service. By 2014, 58 percent of all Americans used Facebook alone, according to Pew, with 79 percent of Americans who use only one social networking site claiming fealty to Facebook. Twitter use climbed by 2014 to 19 percent of all Americans, with 21 percent avowing a commitment to Instagram, and similar numbers using LinkedIn and Pinterest.
In the Campaign of 2008, political campaigns as well as their supporters formed groups on Facebook and MySpace to advocate the election of their candidate. Democratic nominee Barack Obama had a much earlier and much more substantial presence on these sites than did Republican nominee John McCain. Obama’s popularity on Facebook first began to surge in mid-spring of 2008, and by Election Day, Obama had 2,401,366 Facebook friends, whereas McCain, whose investment in Facebook seemed to have surged only weeks before Election Day, ended up with 623,662 Facebook friends. A similar pattern can be seen on MySpace, where Obama’s 840,009 friends on Election Day vastly outnumbered McCain’s 218,348. Moreover, the Obama campaign uploaded 1,792 videos on YouTube between November 2006 and Election Day, whereas the McCain campaign uploaded a mere 329 videos.
Similarly, Twitter permits voters to follow politicians they are interested in, and thus it is a form of campaign communication; voters may also have their tweets followed by others, which constitutes a new form of political activism. In the Campaign of 2008, Obama’s campaign used Twitter to announce campaign events to supporters, to remind voters to tune in to political debates, and even to declare his nominee for vice president. And, unlike traditional, strictly informative campaign Web sites, Obama’s campaign developed a site that was interactive and allowed individuals to tailor its features to suit their personal needs, exploiting elements of social media.
Political campaigns are on a constant quest to find new ways to harness the power of social media to enhance their popularity. Early in the Campaign of 2012, Republican hopeful Rick Perry’s campaign launched a Twitter account (@PerryTruthTeam) dedicated to rebutting “unfair” media coverage of the candidate. Followers were invited to e-mail Perry’s campaign with examples of biased stories that they would like to see publicized. Perpetual Republican-maybe Sarah Palin has relied heavily on Twitter to inform her followers of her views on political issues, to criticize political leaders and candidates, and to maintain her political image. Mimicking the 2008 Obama campaign, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney tweeted the identity of his running mate to his followers in the 2012 election.
The use of Twitter expanded dramatically in the Campaign of 2016 as candidates jockeyed for position in the invisible primary. Republican hopeful Donald Trump used Twitter to mock his GOP rivals, to blast Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and to carry on a petty but vitriolic feud with the news media, and with Fox News in particular. Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders live-tweeted GOP candidate debates, complete with mocking commentary, to the delight of his supporters.
While Twitter offers political candidates the ability to connect instantly to large numbers of supporters, it can also lead to problems for a campaign. John McCain’s daughter, political blogger Meghan McCain, points out the potential advantages and pitfalls for politicians who use Twitter to connect with the public. She notes that Twitter is “impulsive” and “unscripted,” which can lead to unintended consequences for candidates. The allure of Twitter, McCain points out, is that “at a time when the twenty-four-hour news cycle takes away most of the control candidates have over their image, Twitter allows them to be themselves. . . . It is the simplest way to reach the largest audience in the shortest amount of time.”
Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia where content is both created and edited by anonymous users, may also be viewed as a form of social media due to its interactive nature. Survey data suggests that as many as half of all college students utilize Wikipedia in their research; the user-driven contributions on the site often form the starting point for research on term papers, and they serve as shortcuts for individuals to learn about political issues. But just as Wikipedia is a tool for users, it is also a tool for the anonymous authors and editors of its ever-changing content, and it may be used as a partisan political tool to discredit a candidate, or to create a sense of legitimacy for a candidate or a policy proposal. In June 2011, potential Republican candidate Sarah Palin visited the Old North Church while on a tour of Boston and described Paul Revere’s role in history to a group of reporters in a monologue that was riddled with historical inaccuracies. Palin’s supporters then went to great effort to alter the related entries on Wikipedia to reflect Palin’s misstatements in an attempt to minimize the damage from her interview. Comedian Stephen Colbert was notable for challenging the viewers of his show, The Colbert Report, to tailor Wikipedia entries on a topic to reflect an outlandish claim that he made on his show. Colbert had enough devoted viewers that they were able to effectively preclude their entries from being edited by others, illustrating the dangers inherent in relying on Wikipedia for unsuspecting users.
Social media has become increasingly important to voters, particularly younger voters, as a means of defining their political reality, and its influence appears to be expanding to the broader population According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, social networking rates among Americans under the age of thirty have remained stable over time, while usage rates among baby boomers have increased dramatically in recent years. Thus, candidate mobilization strategies that rely on social media may be effective in reaching a larger segment of the public in future elections.
See also Internet Campaigning
Duggan, Maeve, Nicole B. Ellison, Cliff Lampe, Amanda Lenhart, and Mary Madden. “Social Media Update.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, January 9, 2015.
Everett, Burgess. “Tweets Highlight Media’s Perry, Texas Errors.” Politico, August 26, 2011.
Hendricks, John Allen, and Dan Schill. Presidential Campaigning and Social Media: An Analysis of the 2012 Campaign. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Madden, Mary, and Kathryn Zickuhr. “65% of Online Adults Use Social Networking Sites.” Pew Internet and American Life Project, August 26, 2011. http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/08/26/65-of-online-adults-use-social-networking-sites/.
McCain, Meghan. “Anthony Weiner Tweeted Me.” Daily Beast, June 7, 2011.
TechPresident: Personal Democracy Forum. http://techpresident.com/. Accessed October 2, 2015.
Weiner, Rachel. “Fight Brews Over Sarah Palin on Paul Revere Wikipedia Page.” Washington Post, The Fix, June 6, 2011.