3 Presidential Takeaways from Electoral Social Media Marketing

Whether it’s using dynamic tools to reach audiences seconds after a campaign event, or masterfully crafted CTA’s that drive voters to the polls, there’s no doubt that when it comes to social media marketing—both presidential candidates are decisive winners.

As we begin to wind down from the thrill of election season, let’s evaluate 3 takeaways from presidential social media marketing, and how they can help give an electoral boost to your brand:

1. Targeted Messaging Matters

If you’re looking for votes, you need to make sure your message is resonating with supporters. A candidate working with a fan base of 20,000,000, however, must also understand that not every message is going to resonate equally.

We recently saw an ad on Facebook that featured Rapper/Entrepreneur Jay-Z endorsing Barack Obama, clearly targeted towards a younger demographic. If a baby boomer had seen the same ad, it would have had very little, if any, impact.

The same could be said for a brand seeking meaningful engagement from online supporters: the more targeted the message, the more likely that viewers will engage with the post and develop into high-value leads.

By creating a solid customer profile—interests, age, shopping habits, etcetera—your brand can craft a marketing strategy aimed towards supporters, at the optimal conversion time, and with an eerily targeted message.

2. Use Powerful Imagery

After Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republican National Convention, in which he spoke to an empty chair as a surrogate for President Obama, the Obama campaign tweeted a photo of the President sitting in a chair marked “The President,” with the caption “This seat’s taken.” The post was immediately retweeted almost 50,000 times.

Not only do images promote sharing and improve visibility on social networks, they also elicit a strong emotional response from fans in ways that text alone cannot.

Using relevant images to convey brand messaging is a valuable way to improve your reach, while also enabling your brand to and loop-in emotionally driven followers.

3. Be Human

At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, President Bill Clinton (paraphrasing Bob Strauss) said that, “Every politician wants every voter to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself.”

Candidates are always looking to present themselves as the “average American” that lives the American dream…If that’s the case then the American dream must be stitched together with denim pants. [KR1]

But mom jeans aside, personal connections with voters are a critical component of garnering more votes—building a powerful community of supporters for your brand works the same way.

Publish content that is valuable to your fans—offer contests, share other fan’s content, and/or engage directly via Twitter and Facebook. Whatever avenue you choose, humanizing your brand via social media makes fans feel engaged, appreciated, and ready to advocate on behalf of your business.

There’s a lot to learn from the digital marketing strategies of the 2012 campaign, and they all center around a common theme: engage your community of supporters. What good are 20,000,000 Facebook fans if no one is listening to your message? Presidential candidates work tirelessly to empower, engage, and inspire the American people; there’s no reason your brand can’t do the same.

What else can we learn from the 2012 Presidential election? Give us your thoughts in the comments section!