We’re close to the finish line, people. The candidates have been picked. The campaign machine is working overtime. Debates have been set and the voters are….well, they’re not happy. Finally, this crazy train we’ve all been on for the past two years called “the 2016 presidential election” has finally reached the peak. It’s all downhill from here.
Everywhere we turn nowadays, there’s another developing story about GOP nominee Donald Trump or Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton. They’ve dominated every news cycle. In fact, I bet they’re getting more media coverage than the Olympics right now. And even while watching the Olympics, chances are you’ve seen the ad that the Clinton campaign is running. You know the one:
But what’s amazing to me is although I’ve seen Hillz’s advertisement at least every other commercial break at the Olympics, I have yet to see an ad from the Donald. Maybe I’m missing it because I don’t watch much TV? Or maybe it’s because the Trump campaign is using its dollars on online advertising instead of cable. And if that’s the case, they’re doing it right.
A recent article by Entrepreneur examined the social media marketing campaigns between the two candidates and so far, Trump is winning the war. He has more than 10 million Twitter followers, close to 5 million in Facebook fans, and 2,100,000 followers on his Instagram. And we all know how often Mr. Trump tweets. Just scroll down your news feed on Facebook and what will you see? Trump’s face. According to hashtags.org, the #trump tag in the last 24 hours had been used almost a million times. Who needs to pay for advertising with all this free publicity?
When it comes to SEO, Trump is once again the winning candidate. According to data from SEO analysis websites SEMRush and Moz, people searched for Trump 7,480,000 times on Google each month in the last 12 months. His organic search traffic is 1.5 million searches and his website domain authority stands at a 71. Those are numbers any SEO specialist would dream of having for his or her client.
And let’s not forget the media coverage. As the old adage says, any publicity is good publicity and Trump is getting it in spades. Just today, he made the morning news cycle by saying he is “resetting” his campaign while a group of GOP officials has come out to say how dangerous he would be if he became president. Why run ads when you’re on the news networks morning, noon, and night?
It’s obvious – the old campaign methods are either dying or just not effective anymore. More and more, millennials are turning to their social media accounts instead of their local newspaper to get the headlines of the day. And as we’ve said before, if you don’t have any social media, you’re going to be left out in the cold. Just one tweet with the proper hashtag can reach more people than a television ad that probably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to even broadcast during the Summer Games.
Just as this wild election is teaching us, it’s time for a change. The old establishment is fading in the background. In order to stay ahead, you have to follow the trends. And right now, social media is your best way of reaching a wider audience.
But it is hard. And that’s why you’re going to need a team that stays ahead of the game. So contact ENX2 Marketing and we’ll help you with your digital marketing.