Reflection on Social Media Campaigns During the 2020 Election

Introduction

            The 2020 presidential election has been called “the most important election in the history of our country” by President Donald Trump and both candidates as well as their campaign parties have pushed the important message of voting. With the large amounts of American voters on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, presidential candidates and their parties have had to get creative to produce advertisements that fit into the world of social media platforms. While viewing both candidates’ social media pages, I was not surprised to find many advertisements that were in support of one candidate while putting the other down. However, I was surprised to see that there were only a few differences between the advertisements made for social media and the ones that were made for television. 

President Donald J. Trump’s Social Media Campaign Ad

The first advertisement that I watched was “Joe Biden in his own words” this advertisement was a compilation of numerous recorded problematic statements made by Joe Biden about Black Americans throughout his years in politics and were highlighted by the dates these statements were made. The second advertisement I viewed was “When COVID Struck” this ad started by pointing out that President Trump put a ban on travel from China when he first reacted to COVID-19 and Joe Biden criticized and politicized his leadership. It also mentioned that now Joe Biden is proposing to increase refugees by 700% during this pandemic “from the most unstable, vulnerable, dangerous parts of the world”. The third advertisement I viewed from President Trump’s Instagram was reposted from @TeamTrump the official account for the Trump Campaign, the “I voted for Hillary” ad was of a woman who is speaking to the listeners behind the camera about how she voted for Hillary but will absolutely not be voting for Biden because he cannot fix our economy and that she has trust in Trump to fix our economy once again. 

Joe Biden’s Social Media Campaign Ads

            The first advertisement I viewed from Joe Biden was “Trump in Public/Private” which highlighted the big differences between Trump’s opinion about the coronavirus when in public vs. when in private. The second advertisement of Biden’s that I viewed “Fact Check” was done very well for social media, it made a kind of game out Trump’s false statements by having a fact checkbox pop-up and type in the truth about what Trump has done rather than just said. The third advertisement “What Trump Says vs. What Biden Actually Says” said a lot without having to do too much work by simply gathering statements made by Trump about what he believes Joe Biden will do or has done and counteracts them with statements made by Biden that are the complete opposite. 

Reactions to President Trump’s Social Media Campaign Ads

Although most of President Trump’s social media ads weren’t very different in format from his broadcasting ads, it doesn’t mean they aren’t effective on social media. My first reaction about the “Joe Biden in his own words” ad is that I believe it was done very well and could be just the advertisement someone needs to see who is on the fence about voting for Biden to change their minds and decide to vote for Trump.

 My second reaction to this is ad is that I also found it interesting that President Trump and his campaign would decide to create an advertisement like this especially because of all that Trump has said that has been seen as equally if not more problematic, but I also believe that is part of the reason for the success of this ad because it shows that Biden is also not as perfect as people may want or expect him to be. 

Reactions to Joe Biden’s Social Media Campaign Ads

            To me Joe Biden’s social media ads were done very well, they were more engaging and I found them to be more interactive than his broadcasting ads. The “Fact Check” advertisement used very playful music that sounded similar to a game show and played clips of Trump’s claims that were fact-checked and proved wrong by a pop-up text box. I believe this advertisement has the best format for a social media advertisement for these reasons.  It addressed the facts that Trump has made many promises about a health care plan and yet does not have one to show for despite already being the President for four years in a playful way that may be familiar to some social media users. 

Conclusion

            Joe Biden’s social media ads incorporated more edits that I found to be social media friendly and were more engaging in some ways because they didn’t have any narration telling me what the ad is exactly about, just visuals and words accompanied by statements made from Trump and Biden. Social media has allowed for campaigns to have more information/analytics on their possible voters and what they like in order to tweak the advertisements to fit a certain group. Social media has become such a powerful and useful tool to many over the years and has changed the way presidential candidates will advertise to their possible supporters forever.