In today’s changing environment, social media becomes ever more ingrained in daily life. Recently, social media has expanded its reach even further; moving into the sphere of politics. For example, in the last presidential election, part of the reason Donald Trump was able to gain the amount of media coverage was through his social media account. Most specifically he gained attention using twitter. As successful as Trump was in utilizing social media for his political platform, not all social media movements are so successful. Below are some screenshots of images from different social media movements explaining why some social media movements aren’t successful.

 

A large factor of why there was so much media attention on Trump was his use of twitter, he used his understanding of social media and brand image from his past ventures to gain leverage (Image from MSNBC).

 

 

Hillary Clinton was not as accustomed to using social media as a platform. She wasn’t able to show personality in her tweets, this affected how well she was able to connect to her audience(Image from MSNBC).

 

Even though Donald Trump was successful in winning the election, there was a cost. His use of social media was sometimes too brazen and lacked a true moral compass. This resulted in there being a backlash and protests in the United States.

 

In order to have a truly effective political movement on social media, it is important to keep in mind that some ideas may be offensive to people. Keeping a social media clean allows to mass communication and spreading a sense of goodwill towards the movement.

Another reason social media campaigns are limited is the ability for social media to make people feel good about themselves(Graham). It is much easier to tweet about a movement rather than to take action steps towards promoting that platform.

 

The reason that the nature of social media can lead to inaction is the reward system set up in our minds(ASAP Science). Social media rewires our brains to feel happy from likes and comments of their social media posts. This immediate rewards trains people to be more lazy when it comes to certain things, especially supporting a new political movement you see while scrolling through twitter.

 

In conclusion, social media can be a powerful tool able to spread a message to millions of people for little to no cost; but in order to create a successful political movement, there are many things people need to be wary of. The most important thing for a campaign is to have the users recognize the owner of the campaign as human or being rooted in strong moral thought. Second, it is crucial for campaigns to find a way to motivate people to take action in the form of offline activism as well as online activism (Shayan). Keeping these things in mind, a social media campaign is bound to be more successful.

 

 

 

 

AsapSCIENCE. (2014, September 07). 5 Crazy Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain Right Now. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffWFd_6bJ0

Kanalley, C. (2017, December 07). The Impact Of Social Media On Occupy Wall Street. Retrieved November 26, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/occupy-wall-street-social-media_n_999178.html

MSNBC. (2016, April 07). The Politics Of Social Media In 2016 Election | Morning Joe | MSNBC. Retrieved November 26, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp2UZdNFjlw

Shayan, Z. (2016, May 06). Connectivity Of Online And Offline Activism – Analysis. Retrieved November 26, 2018, from http://www.eurasiareview.com/06052016-connectivity-of-online-and-offline-activism-analysis/

Talks, T. (2014, November 10). How social media makes us unsocial | Allison Graham | TEDxSMU. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GecYjy9-Q