Politicians and Social Media

When I think of a relationship between politics and social media, it always comes around to Donald Trump. He has been one of the most active presidents on social media. But what does this do for him? I think that his plan is to draw as much attention to him as he can. All publicity that he can get is pretty beneficial for him. This is because he will always have supporters behind him. The more attention, the longer he is standing center stage and gaining supporters. 

Trump claims that he has a specific reason to be so active in social media. 

He says that he uses social media to fight against fake media. However, I don't think that this could be the best thing to do. I think addressing the media through social media seems unprofessional. This could possibly just be because it's something we haven't seen a lot of. Maybe it is the way society and social media is changing. Even if it isn't something to look down on (our president being very active on social media), there are some instances where his twitter activity seems unprofessional. 

It is pretty crazy to see the President of the United States calling out people and referring to another politician as "crooked". All while this seems pretty abnormal and kind of weird, I believe this is what makes him successful. He does this to gain popularity. Twitter consists of millions of users who see his tweets, which are then shared and circulated throughout the internet. People who would agree with what he is saying, would start to get behind his views and beliefs. 

There is another politician that I think of when I think of the relationship between politics and social media. Norm Kelly, the Councillor of Toronto, has some pretty funny tweets.

Here, Norm Kelly is doing the same kind of thing as Trump, just on a lower pedestal. He is drawing attention to himself by trying to relate with the young people of the generation. The millennial's are what makes up most of society at this point. By relating to them, he is able to get them behind his movements and beliefs. It is more strategic than just tweeting to entertain. Just as Donald Trump's tweets are strategic, and not just doing it to make himself seem cool on social media. But there is a difference between how the two go about their tweets. Norm Kelly's tweets seem more of an entertaining persuasion while Donald Trump's are more like "I'm badass" persuasion. Nevertheless, both strategies seem to be very effective. 

There is a strategy when it comes to politicians using social media. They use social media as a way to influence others and get them on their side, which is not too difficult because of how much influence social media has on society today.