Social Media and Political Advertisements - Essay Example

Social Media and Political Advertisements Name Institution Introduction The presidential elections in the United States are marked with vigorous campaign which seeks to influence the opinions and choice of people. Political campaigns involve the use of different groups to seek influence or to influence people (Perloff, 2013). In the 2012 American presidential elections, there are a number of new campaign strategies that were introduced which were different from the traditional campaign strategies (Arkin, 2012). The increased use of digital and social al media has offered people with a variety of communication strategies that has been able to transform the political campaign in the United States of America. This has resulted to the promotion of democracy and participation of citizens in politics as well as shaping the way in which political information is communicated in various parts of the world (Mitchell & Rosentie, 2012). The fast delivery of information through the internet has resulted in the use of internet by different people to obtain feedback from their clients. Hence, the internet can be used by the politician and citizens in sharing of issues affecting the society (Lewis, 2012). Traditional campaign strategies were not focusing on the use of online media platforms. The introduction of social media networking has resulted in a change from traditional campaign strategies to internet based campaign strategies in 2012 elections. Social media has increased the speed at which people spread messages from one point to another in a fast and efficient way. This implies that the internet has become a way in which the ordinary citizen can share his or her opinion on political matters which had otherwise been reserved for politician (Cruz, 2012). The purpose of this essay is to analyse the use of social media in the 2012 presidential campaigns and its role in the presidential elections. In analysing the role of social media campaign strategies, the essay also compares the modern campaign techniques with traditional campaign strategies. Social Media and Political Adverting in 2012 Elections Independent Websites Independent websites are those sites which are owned by different political leaders. These sites have different information and policies regarding a particular candidate. In the 2012 American presidential elections there were two main candidates; barrack Obama and mitt Romney who were able to use their independent campaign websites for their political advertisements (Lewis, 2012). Mitt Romney and Barak Obama ensured that they have independent campaign websites where they had employed third party companies that were responsible for the tracking of crucial data that would help both candidates in their presidential elections. The idea was to track the internet usage of users so as to deliver specific advertisements which is able to strike home different adverts for the user. Hence, the independent websites identify those sites which they can use to deliver their campaign advertisements in order to influence people. In most cases the independent websites designed adverts which kept on reminding the users to vote for their respective candidates in which the site is visited. The websites were able to collect big data on voter’s habits online and designed adverts for such users. For example, if the independent website realised that a user was searching for Obama and his running mate or his political party is able to get an adverts in form of a picture or video that is strategically placed by the websites on the browser of the user so that they can be able to see the advert. The aim is to urge this internet user to vote for Barak Obama and his running mate. Bot Obama and Romney were able to effectively use this form of political advertisements by designing adverts that appeared on different web pages such as Google and Facebook. Hence, the presidential candidates were able to reach a large number of people using their independent websites. In addition, they were able to get the statistics on the behaviours of the voters that support their campaigns and policies (Arkin, 2012). Social Networking Sites There are different social media networking sites that have attracted a large number of people especially the youths. In order to pass their messages to the large number of internet users who were on social media, politicians in the 2012 elections ensured that they became actively involved in their social media sites in order to pass on their messages and obtain feedback from their supports. The most commonly used social networks were twitter, YouTube, Google plus, Tumblr and Facebook. The two presidential candidates Obama and Romney ensure that they had gathered enough supporters to like their twitter and Facebook pages so as to influence them to vote for them (Lewis, 2012). Obama and Romney used social networking sites to expand their political membership to those users who were online. This means that different online users liked their pages or followed their respective pages was a clear indication that they are their supporter or supports of the party in which the presidential candidates belonged (Rainie, 2012). The candidates were able to give their supporters a chance to share their ideologies and affiliations to the party. The social networking sites gives the voters a chance to help the candidate’s campaign by retweeting, commenting, sharing and licking of status updates of either Obama or Romney on their respective social networking profiles. The intention was to create an online crowed which is able to view and share online messages from the candidates. For example, the Barak Obama campaign made it more interesting by sharing social networking posts in order to create a supportive online group (Wortham, 2012). This was able to gather the different social media users who had common values and polices as well as unique posts. According to (Cruz, 2012), the strategy of social networking campaign was successful for Obama and unsuccessful for Romney. For example, Obama employed the technique of retweeting follower’s posts that had stronger influential messages on his political career while Romney was seen to only retweet one post from a follower in over a month. The use of twitter and Facebook allowed the candidates top share real-time information on their political activities and share their information in order to influence people to vote for them. In addition, videos of different speeches and rallies were posted in social media such as YouTube from which different voters in all states were able to see and hear the message even if they did not attend the rallies. This means that the social media allowed the citizens to get fast hand information on the political activities of their candidates in order to make a choice during the election time. Smartphones use in social media Although smartphones were not a form of social media, they facilitated the use of the internet for campaign strategies in the United States 2012 presidential elections. During the campaign period, voters were able to use smart phones to increase their internet usage and social media to follow their different candidates on their websites and social media accounts. In some cases, the smartphones were also used to access social media accounts and like the pages as well as comment on issues regarding the poetical policies of different political parties (Arkin, 2012). The presidential candidates realise that most smartphone use used their phones to comment on different campaigns of their candidates, Obama and Romney ensure that they had designed mobile versions of the campaign websites so that the citizens can be able to view the contents of the sites easily and make comments regarding their candidates. The funding of political campaigns were also done using smartphones and social media. Campaign contributions were accepted through text messages. The use of text message contributions was a result of the influence of social media in the presidential campaigns. According to (Cruz, 2012), about 10 per cent of the campaign contributions in the United States 2012 elections were done using smartphone applications. The Role of Social Media in US 2012 Elections The role of the social media during the 2012bamerican presidential election cannot be overemphasized. The use of social media in the campaigns and political advertisements ensured that the public was actively involved ion the campaign process and in the election of their leaders of choice. For example, the introduction of web 2.0 and the ability to share real-time video streaming enables the public to get engaged in political Matters. Voters were able to share short video clips with messages from different candidates (Mitchell & Rosentie, 2012). This enables the presidential candidates to gather more supporters for their elections. The presidential candidates were aware that a large number of the youth who were also the largest number of voters were connected to the internet hence in order to appeal to the youth, ways and means that would enable the candidates reach them were developed. Hence, social media such as Facebook was use a way in which candidates could mobilize youth voters in the United States of America (Lewis, 2012). Most of the Obama supporters were younger individuals who spent most of their time using social media for different purposes. Hence, the Obama campaign was seen to benefit much from the use of social media in political advisements who compared to mitt Romney whose supporters were old and not much users of the internet and social media. The use of social media also enables candidates such as Obama and Romney to each a larger number of audience when compared to ordinary campaign strategies. The use of images that were posted in different social media profiles such as twitter and Facebook acted as constant reminders to the supporters. Hence, the social media played a major role in encouraging the masses to turn up in large numbers during the voting exercise (Wortham, 2012). In addition, the social media was used by both Obama and Romney top lure the voters to vote for them so that they can be able to win the elections. The social media was also used to the campaigners to advertise their policies and register more members as well as ensuring that a large number of people are able to get involved in the politic of a particular candidate (Arkin, 2012). Traditional Campaigning Techniques in the United States Before the introduction of modern technology use in making campaigns in the United States of America, political parties used traditional ways of campaigning which were common in different parts of the world such as Europe and Africa. There are different traditional techniques that were also used together with the modern campaign techniques during the 2012 elections. Campaign Rallies and Meetings These were campaign rallies in which the candidates address the public who have gathered at a particular venue. During the campaign rallies invite different people who may offer support. This means that the public was not actively involved in the politics but was a spectator and listener to what the candidates has to say. There was no direct engagement of the public to the presidential candidates. Unlike in the social media where a candidate can be actively involved in an online discussion, this form of campaign through rallies makes it difficult for the crowd to comment on the issues that are discussed by the presidential; candidates. In addition, the numbers of people who are able to attend the rally are limited when compared top number of followers that a presidential candidate can have. This implies that a presidential candidate who uses a rally and one who uses a social media profile to communicate have different number of audience. The social media rallies are able to reach a large number of voters who share the messages with those who do not have the message (Tunam, 2008). Campaign Advertisements on Newspaper and Television Before the introduction and widespread of social media campaign advertisement, political parties advertised their political campaign via the newspaper, radio and television. This means that the campaign and adverts were run as commercial adverts on different televisions networks and printed on the pages of a newspaper or magazine. This means of advertisement seem to appeal to those viewers who became interested with the adverts. In addition, it only limited the number of audience since it only targeted those people who were watching or reading a newspaper at the time the advert shown or printed. Unlike in the social media where the campaign adverts is tailored to the specific audience in the particular media, the use of television and newspaper gives a general campaign advertisement that may not appeal to some specific group of people in the community (Luhasen, 1996). For example, a campaign poster of short video sent via YouTube and twitter may addresses issues affecting the youth and convinces them to vote for particular candidates while the campaign poster in a newspaper may be too general for the youth or elderly to identify with it (Rainie, 2012). In addition, the use of television and newspaper advertisement was not able to engage the voters in active participation and give direct feedback to their preferred candidates. The presidential candidates were also not able to identify voter habits using traditional newspaper campaign techniques since it was not clear on what criteria to use. Unlike in the social media such as the use of independent websites where the candidate could observe the searches of online users and send adverts that are specific, television and newspaper campaign are not able. This means that the social media campaign were more effective when compared to the use of newspapers (Smith & Duggan, 2012). The 2012 election candidates such as mitt Romney and Barak Obama did not focus on traditional campaign media for different reasons. First, a majority of the voters according to census reports in the United States of America were youth people who were using the internet more than any other means of media for communication. For the case of Barak Obama, he had won the previous election from supporters who were aged below the age of 29 years hence there was the need to use campaign strategies that were appealing to this age group. This may be the reason as to why the republic and democratic candidates used digital techniques that ensured innovative techniques that involved the youths. Although mitt Romney was seen to still rely on traditional campaigns, he also embraced the use of modern campaign techniques in order to attract young voters. Hence, in order to attract young voters among which were jobless, Obama and Romney used social media strategies such as Facebook, twitter, YouTube and independent websites in order to influence voters (Comart, 2011). Use of Endorsement and Celebrated Individuals There has been the use of endorsements and celebrated individuals of the society who give speeches in favour of the presidential candidates in order to influence the community to vote in their favour. In addition, the endorsed individual is likely to influence the people through the coattail effect. However, the use of celebrated and endorsed individual has its own challenges. For example, when a presidential candidate endorsed or was endorsed by an individual who is citizen in the society by a particular group of individual it may result to poor campaign results of the candidates hence failure in the elections. In most cases endorsement was seen to be done by members of the same political party. For example, the endorsement of Obama by bill Clinton means that Bill Clinton is favouring his fellow democratic candidate. This is because bill Clinton used his fame and popularity and the former president of the United States to endorse Obama so that people can be able to vote for Obama. However, those citizens who may have liked Obama but disliked the way of governance that was used by Bill Clinton may affect negatively the campaign results when Clinton endorses Obama. Analysis of the modern and traditional campaign strategies The use of modern techniques has been contributed to the increased use of the internet by the youth and the increased need to reach a large number of votes by the politicians. The use of online strategies in election campaign was started in the 2008 presidential campaigns and was used fully in the 20912 elections (Lewis, 2012). From the results of the Obama and Romney campaigns the use of social media in political advertisements was seen to be more effective than the use of newspaper, rallies and other traditional forms of campaigns. This is because the social media strategies were able to engage a large number of people and involve the citizens in political matters (Mitchell & Rosentie, 2012). In addition, the social media strategies can be used in future since they are able to each a large number of people who are supports of the candidate. The traditional campaign techniques are seen to be more expensive and more involving when compared to the social media techniques. This is because the maintenance of a campaign website is cheaper when compared to the maintenance of a campaign advert on a television of a rally. Unlike the traditional campaign techniques, the use of social media techniques in campaigns and political advertisements was able to reduce the burden of reaching different groups in the society since the campaign adverts were tailored towards the needs of the citizens., this can be explained by the success of the social media strategies that were used by the Romney and Obama campaigns (Arkin, 2012). Hence, politicians should embrace the use of social media in future political campaigns and political advertisements. Conclusion Campaign during presidential candidates is used by the politicians of both democrats and the republicans ton influence the voters to vote for their respective candidates. Different candidates use different campaign strategies in order to ensure that they spread their policies and influence the voters to vote for them. During the 2012 presidential campaigns, Romney and Obama employed new campaign strategies that were seen to be different from the classical campaign techniques. The increased use of digital and social al media has offered people with a variety of communication strategies that has been able to transform the political campaign in the United States of America. This has resulted to the promotion of democracy and participation of citizens in politics as well as shaping the way in which political information is communicated in various parts of the world. The fast delivery of information through the internet has resulted in the use of internet by different people to obtain feedback from their clients. The social media campaigns in the 2012 elections played a major role as they were effective ion influencing supporter’s tom vote for their leaders. In addition, social media campaigns were used by the candidates to raise funds for the campaigns through the use of Smartphone’s. The use of traditional campaign strategies was seen to be ineffective when compared to social media. The social media campaigns were able to reach a large number of voters and seemed to be effective in engaging the various target groups in the voting process. This is because the use of social media such as Facebook and twitter allows voters and supporters to engage actively in policies and politics by commenting, posting and liking profiles of their candidates. This provided the candidates with crucial information of voter habits which was important for campaign strategies. Hence, the use of social media is more effective that traditional campaign techniques. References Arkin, J. (2012). President Obama Dominates Mitt Romney In Social Media Use. The New York Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2012/08/president-obama-dominates-mittromney-in-social-media-use. Comart, J. (2011). Why Obama Needs Social Media to Win in 2012. Mashable. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2011/10/24/obama-social-media-campaign/ Cruz, L. (2012). 2012 - The Social Media Election? Cisco Newsroom – The Network: Cisco's Technology News Site. Retrieved from http://newsroom.cisco.com/feature/1006785/2012-The-Social-Media-Election Lewis, M. (2012). Politics Gets Social: 160 Jaw-Dropping Facts about the 2012 Presidential Election. Social Media Today. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/mlewis1/977296/politics-gets-social-160-jaw-dropping-factsabout-2012-presidential-election. Luhasen, C. (1996). The Rhetoric of Moral Protest: Public Campaigns, Celebrity Endorsement, and Political Mobilization. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter Mitchell, A., & Rosentie, T. (2012). The Web and Social Media Press. Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ): Understanding News in the Information Age. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/press_release_3. Rainie, L. (2012). Social Media and Voting. Pew Research Center's Internet &American Life Project. Retrieved December 10, 2012, from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Social-Vote-2012.aspx. Perloff, R. (2013). The Dynamics of Political Communication: Media and Politics in a Digital Age. London: Routledge Smith, A., & Duggan, M. (2012). The State of the 2012 Election — Mobile Politics |Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Pew Research Center's Internet &American Life Project. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Election-2012-Mobile.aspx. Tunam, J. (2008). Political communication in American campaigns. California: Sage Publications Wortham, J. (2012). Campaigns Use Social Media to Lure In Younger Voters. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/technology/campaigns-use-social-media-to-lureyounger-voters.html Read More