Democratic Candidates In Georgia Senatorial Race Draws Support from Young Voters

Democratic senatorial candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are using the same social media strategy used by Biden in drawing support for his presidency, Social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram reels have shown incredible success in moving young voters to go out and vote as well as convince others to do so. Theyare mostly age 30 and below, as manifested by their large turnout during the November presidential election.

Jake Best, Ossoff’s press secretary, mentioned in an email that the Democratic party candidates are putting efforts in winning over young people using different social media features and tools. According to Best, the Democratic senatorial candidates’ campaign strategy is engaging directly with young voters in communicating about current issues concerning the environment, coronavirus and others. They usually interact with their supporters through online platforms such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snapchat.

Creative Strategies Make a Difference When Targeting Young Social Media Users

When compared to Republican senatorial candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, they are into using Instagram and Twitter as their preferred social media platforms. Their posts mostly consists of text explaining their political point of views and sharing articles and media content about them or their supporters. Senator Kelly Loeffler’s Instagram and Twitter accounts even include solicitations for campaign donations.

Republican Senators are way off on how to effectively reach voters via Instagram and are missing opportunities of reaching younger voters via TikTok and Snapchat. .

Democratic candidates Warnock and Ossoff have been personally involved in posting memes in their accounts when interacting with the young generations of voters, while conveying important points on why they should exercise their right to vote.

However, the nature of their posts use a less political approach, as Warnock even has streamed some few games on Twitch while playing “Among Us” with young gamers, whether they are of the voting age or not. Daniel Blackman, who is himself running for office as Public Service Commissioner under the Democratic Party said that in one of his streams, he played “Uno” with Ossoff and other friends. During his streams, and while playing, they answered questions coming from players and other viewers to clarify certain political issues.

Ossoff, who is a younger candidate than Warnock, is much more active on TikTok; posting various video clips containing comedy and music, while at the same time conveying his political opinions on issues. On Instagram, he uses the platform to post snippets of movie films to get his political messages across young followers, for them to go out and vote.

Researchers Thoughts on Using Social Media Platforms for Political Purposes

A study by CIRCLE, an information and research center delving on civic learning and engagement, discovered that the attendance of young voters in the last election was higher. The demographic percentage of voters ages 18 to 29 during 2016 was only 42% to 44% while in 2020, 52% to 55% of the population of young voters had cast ballots.

On the other hand, a 2018 research from the University of Missouri-Columbia revealed that Instagram users prefer posts related to entertainment, if compared to following posts about controversial or political topics. The researchers noted that IG users tend to follow news images only if they are aesthetically pleasing to look at and if it’s empowering.

According to T.J. Thomson, a doctoral candidate at University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Instagram users tend to avoid controversial or political posts because they prefer to use their IG social media accounts as means of escaping the realities of they face. They are not interested to view similar topics on the platform. Instead, they’d rather go to trustworthy news media outlets if they want to get updates about serious news.

Brand promoters and influencers looking to market their product should take note of how political campaigns are now finding it advantageous to use dynamic social media sites Instagram. However, when carrying out campaigns, it’s always best to know which post, Stories, or Reels are producing the desired results from the right groups of audience. Be in the know that there are providers of Instagram analytics that can give the insights you need when looking to improve your Instagram content.

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