Is Snapchat the New Political Platform?

Every year during election season, we see new trends creeping in that link political campaigns with social media.  We are already getting a sense of what those trends are going to be for the 2016 Presidential election.  So far, all signs point to Snapchat.

Snapchat!?  If you are like me, this is kinda shocking news. Snapchat was originally labeled as a teen and tween sexting app.  Definitely not something that political hopefuls would use to promote themselves.  

But times are a-changin'.  And so is Snapchat.  Earlier this year, Snapchat unveiled "Discover", its news functionality.  Ever since, it has been establishing increased credibility.  So much so that Republican Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush used Snapchat to announce his intentions to run for President!

That's right!  He ANNOUNCED this on Snapchat!  And others are jumping on this bandwagon, most likely to connect with the younger demographic, age 18-34, who make up the majority of Snapchat users.  Governor Rick Perry has made announcements through Snapchat and many others including Senator Rand Paul, Senator Marco Rubio, and Governor Perry have active Snapchat accounts.  In case you are curious, their account names are SenatorRandPaul, MarcoRubio2016 and GovernorPerry, respectively.  

Do you think the Snapchat strategy is wise for political hopefuls?  

My name is Social Media Diva, and I approve this message.

 

Ahh, the telltale sign of election season used to be just all those ads on TV!  But this is being called the Social Media Election which means that campaigns now have a huge presence in social media so there's really no getting away from them!  It's going to be interesting to see just how effective these social media campaigns are, and which candidate is doing it better.

I love this new interactive infographic from Unruly. It's the exclusive measurement tool for tracking the 2012 Presidential race's social media video sharing activity. In a fun and engaging way, the display shows the number of shares each candidates' video content receives across blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

Not only is it interesting to see the number of shares (which are updated twice a day until election day) but the site also shows the most shared videos for each campaign. Some are funny, some are serious, some are not so nice.  But with over 10 million shares, it seems to me that social media will make a difference in who becomes our next President.

Check it out here.