Position Paper 3 Social Media
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Social media is the root of all success. Haven't heard that one before, have you? Being semi-freshly 20-years old and more politically aware of my country now more than ever, 2024's presidential election has been the most fitting election battle to follow. From Kamala HQ and celebrity public endorsements to Donald Trump and his endearing bromance with Elon Musk, how can one keep up? Don't worry, if you don't understand those references then you're in the right place.
Compared to presidential campaigns in the past, these two particular campaigns have expanded politician use of social media for political advertising. It was smart--choosing to target their audience right where they're likely to be found: the internet. More specifically, social media platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, and X (Twitter) have been the main vocal points of this world of politicians and media.
Kamala HQ is the campaign social media for Vice President Kamala Harris, used to enlighten the nation as a whole on her intentions as President in office, all while expressing her genuine character with the public. The idea behind 'kamala hq' refers to the album cover of English singer, Charli XCX's recent album called "brat." Harris' rebrand immediately followed a public endorsement from the singer, in which she stated on X, "kamala IS brat." Ironically, the message behind Charli's album unpacks womanhood, jealousy, generational trauma, confidence, and vulnerability, in which some of these topics correlate with Harris' values and agenda. In fact, it closely represents her national agenda to protect women's rights and provide opportunity for all, while clearly displaying confidence as the Democratic presidential candidate for 2024. (Aljazeera)
The day of the campaign releases, Kamala HQ Instagram campaign account posted screenshot showing Charli's original album cover background and text font, with the new text as "kamala hq" instead of "brat."
This was only the beginning of Harris' use of social media for her marketing campaign. Throughout the election season, Harris' marketing team displayed sufficient quickness in staying up to date on trends, posting videos that most related to social media users, especially seen on TikTok. Kamala HQ on TikTok uses popular, trending audio sounds to make full use of posting current trends that most users find out of pocket in humorous way. They even went above and beyond and created an edit of Kamala Harris, which most users thought was even more intriguing when they noticed who posted the edit.
"Kamala, you're fired. Get out of here--you're fired. Get the hell out of here." - Donald J. Trump
Although it's clear the candidates aren't the real social media managers of their campaigns, they treat it as if it's their own. Instead of leading with celebrity endorsements like Kamala started with, Donald J. Trump's campaign utilized the media to, for example, post an endorsement from
Representative Tulsi Gabbard and a video with general voting information (or encouragement, I guess you could say). Of course, there were his celebrity endorsement also. With all being said, the Trump marketing team also took note of TikTok in real time and used that to match the people's energy.
What some people don't realize is how drastically social media changes the color (or in other words the outside perspective) of these individuals. Based on interviews with Donald Trump and his daughter,
Ivanka Trump, many people online have stated their disgust and hatred for him. However, for those that are not as involved into the depth of politics or specifically, Trump's history, viewing tiktoks like this one could give us all a run for our money.
Social media is probably the best thing that's happened to the both of them for this election season, besides Trump's win obviously. Without allowing room for a genuine connection between the presidential candidates and the voters, it would have been a very slow run, for Harris mostly. Overall, social media did its job (and those who ran it), and people all over the nation were able to actually have fun with this serious matter of choosing America's 2024 president.
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