Facebook made it known that on Jan. 21, 2021, the official White House FB and Instagram accounts will tre transferred in Joe Biden’s name being the new POTUS. Although outgoing president Trump will lose access to the said social media accounts, his personal Donald J. Trump Facebook and Instagram accounts will not be affected by the transitions. On the other hand, many are curious on how Biden will use the White House Instagram account since the Instagram Live platform played an important role in his presidential campaigns.
How Biden Was Able to Reach Supporters via Social Media Sties Despite Being an Offline Person
Anecdotally, it is said that it is easier to find social media posts besmirching Joe Biden’s character than find info about who Joe Biden is as a person; as a way to gauge his sincerity with his political plans once he becomes the 46th U.S. President. Our curiosity was satisfied by a Recode article in which Biden campaign team’s surrogate strategy director, Adrienne Elrod, shared how they used Instagram in carrying out Biden’s campaigns.
Adrienne said that they were forced to do nearly everything virtual while former VP Joe Biden is basically an offline person. It was important for them to do so, as they were running out of time in finding new audiences to reach wherever they are, and however they can. They posted tweets and even went to Occupy Democrat, until they finally hit the nail using the right approach.
Biden’s campaign team collaborated with Instagram influencers who have the natural knack for targeting and influencing audiences; particularly those in communities that needed persuading to go out and vote, as well as those living in the so-called swing states. The campaign team also hired a marketing firm that helped develop plans to make the influencer-outreach-approach effective.
Ms. Elrod said that via Instagram Live, an influencer interviewed Biden in his home, asking open-ended questions that allowed the then Democratic presidential candidate to talk candidly about topics put forward by the interviewing influencer. The influencer-Instagram Live strategy was unique to the Biden campaign, as the videos were neither promotional ads nor political endorsements.
The goal was simply to convey credibility, which made the audience take a closer look at Biden and of his governance plans, his approach to leadership, and in addressing the current issues of systemic racism and police reforms. What the audience got from the influencer hosted Instagram Live videos were enough to think of Biden as the best candidate to replace Donald J. Trump. In fact the videos were even shared by Biden’s Instagram followers in their YouTube and Facebook accounts.
According to Ms. Elrod, It also helped that Biden’s granddaughters, namely Maisy, Finn, Natalie and Naomi hosted their own Instagram Live videos in collaboration with influencers who ranked highly among the young Instagram audiences.
The Instagram Live Influencer outreach strategy was quite effective that the Biden-Harris teamup debuted by way of campaign signs appearing in “Animal Crossing”, the social video game that was quite a hit during the pandemic lockdown period.
https://youtu.be/mFVyHxKRSLc
Now we know how Biden was able to conquer the social media audience despite the President-Elect’s known offline personality. Now for those who are curious on how influencers are able to identify the audience to target, be in the know that there are analytic tools that can provide Instagram statistics, which can help identify the kind of audience to reach.