Blunder by Trump Demonstrates Why Politicians Need to be Careful on Social Media
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| Gawker |
The most recent example of needing to stop and think before accessing social media came from Donald Trump. The Republican candidate seems pretty set to win the Republican Primaries but on Sunday he re-tweeted a quote attributed to Mussolini. What you have to remember here is that Trump was kind of set up, the staff at the Gawker created a bot that would tweet Mussolini quotes at Trump several times a day. This has been going on since December so it was pretty likely that Trump was going to re-tweet something eventually and you can point out that the quote he actually chose to re-tweet? It's pretty innocent and you have to admit that even if you don't like him or what he did.
"@ilduce2016: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain"— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2016
The account was pretty obviously a Mussolini account. The name was IlDuce2016, a reference to how Mussolini was known in Italy. The account icon also clearly has Mussolini's face on it and Trump has stated that he knew who the quote was attributed to. He just didn't care. And to an extent he has a point, the quote isn't all that fascist really but the fact it came from Mussolini would still have got a lot of other politicians in trouble. It's not the first time recently that Trump has re-tweeted something from an awkward source and used it to his own gain. He recently re-tweeted a picture from a White Supremacist group of a man holding a Vote Trump sign. He then used said photo to poke fun at Jeb Bush. In both cases he wasn't making a statement about his own beliefs but who he re-tweeted from probably weren't the smartest choices.
Of course the Republicans aren't the only ones on the campaign trail who are making mistakes on social media that maybe don't get the candidates in trouble, but do make some people question them.
Hillary Clinton is known for letting people take over her Instagram. Her husband Bill took over for one day recently and Katy Perry did so last year but one of her supporter's back in January may not have been the best choice. Lena Dunham is a well-known comedienne and at first she and her show Girls were well loved. But since she published her memoirs in 2014, a lot of people have turned against her due to some things she described as doing to her younger sister. Though many experts have said what she did wasn't wrong, the statements turned a lot of people off of Dunham and for her to publicly declare her support over social media was bound to upset some of Clinton's younger supporters.
Unlike Donald Trump's re-tweets, this was probably organised by Hillary's campaign team. You'd have thought they'd have looked into public opinion for all age groups. Perhaps they did and thought she was the sort of quirky person that Clinton needed and to be fair, it's not stopped her from doing well so far. But you can't deny that it's something that could sway a lot of people on social media.
Harnessing social media is only going to get more and more important for politicians in the future. It's the place where you can come across a range of people from all across your country and it's a good way to get news out quickly yourself. It doesn't matter who you are or how your political views are skewed as there will always be at least one person who believes in you. The thing is that you do need to research before posting on there. It's the same as any other political strategy and your image matters. If you're trying to appeal to certain types of people then you need to keep your social media aimed at them. Both Trump and Clinton have done this even if you could consider them to have made mistakes. I'd say that's probably the reason they're still doing well but it doesn't mean that other politicians shouldn't be careful, social media can really drum up support but if you're unlucky, it could tear you down too.
Rosina is a Songbird rookie with a degree in Creative Writing. She's trying to focus on her novel on the side but is hoping that Content Writing will turn out to be a good career choice in the mean time! Follow her @RosinaAtSMF
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Blunder by Trump Demonstrates Why Politicians Need to be Careful on Social Media
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Wednesday, March 02, 2016
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Reviewed by Unknown
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Wednesday, March 02, 2016
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