The Social Media Election

Recently Mitt Romney announced his exploratory campaign for President. How did I find this out? Twitter. That's correct, Mitt Romney used a popular social media outlet to reach his closest followers. Being a technology minded guy, this surprised me, and indicated something bigger about the upcoming election.

This next election will be the Social Media Election. Go back in time to 2008. Sure, candidates used social media outlets to send out information. But, Twitter was still in it's infancy and no one really knew exactly what to do with it. Foursquare didn't even exist yet. The hot, new, group messaging/private social network craze? You know, like GroupMe, Beluga, and Yobongo? Nope, startups were still trying to become the next HUGE network, like Facebook.

Fast forward to today. Millions more people have smartphones, allowing them to be always connected to whichever network they choose. Twitter is now one of the biggest social networks on the internet, and people have started to figure out it's usefulness. Foursquare has millions of users checking in to different locations constantly. The new private social networks allow for longer, more in-depth, discussions about political topics with people you actually know and respect, rather than random comment trolls. I know what you're thinking, "That's great and all, but how does this make the election a Social Media Election?"

It's easy if you think about it. What is a campaign? It's a candidate advertising themselves and determining what the people want. In previous times, candidates had to travel all over the country to do this. Now, however, they can do this simply with a push of a button. Not only that, but also get their message out to more people. I mean, come on, everyone is on some type of social network. Hell, even my GRANDMA is on Facebook.

Furthermore, the economy and job situation is a hot topic. And don't tell me it's not. Romney publicly called Obama out via TWITTER:

@barackobama I look forward to hearing details on your jobs plan, as are 14m unemployed Americans

How does the job/economy topic push the election towards social media? Easy, what demographic is looking for the most jobs? College graduates, aka ME. What do college students do? They use social media. ALL THE TIME. They neglect homework, tests and pretty much anything academic to use social media. Trust me, I know.

The next question is: how do you create jobs? Startups. What startups are succeeding? Social media startups. No one wants to be left out, and in the current world of social media, you know instantly if you are being left out. So, people will jump at the opportunity to be a part of "the next big thing."

Candidates need to reach people. They need to reach them fast. They need to reach them directly, not through the standard news outlets with all kinds of spin, both left and right. What can allow candidates to do these things? SOCIAL MEDIA. Mark my words - this upcoming election, will be the Social Media Election.

-RegAmerican