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Trump's strategy worked brilliantly on social media. Here's the strategy in a nutshell: 1) Say something outrageous that news orgs will grab for a quick, clic
by grandalf 10y ago
Trump's strategy worked brilliantly on social media. Here's the strategy in a nutshell:
1) Say something outrageous that news orgs will grab for a quick, clickbait story that will generate tons of ad revenue.
2) Let outraged people share via social media.
3) Benefit as some of the people seeing the content will not disagree and will take the candidacy seriously.
4) Win.
It doesn't matter what Facebook does with its trending section, the real value of Trump's strategy came with the way it exploits the basic sharing / newsfeed mechanism's intended behavior. Even today, many Trump opposers think that they were helping by posting their outrage at every rude comment Trump said.
- talmand 10y agoI agree, I place a great deal of responsibility on the news media for popularizing the circus mentality of the election cycle for profit. Trump saw it for what it was near the beginning and took advantage. Every time the news media focused on his antics, true or not, and not on the issues pushed him closer to the Presidency. Well, that and the fact they apparently had problems with admitting Clinton was a flawed candidate.
- fullshark 10y agoExcept he closed the gap in the last few weeks of the race when he stopped saying outrageous shit.
- debacle 10y agoPeople still want to believe that Trump couldn't have won except by exploiting stupid people.
- grandalf 10y agoHis message resonated with a lot of people. His tactics exploited social media patterns and mass media patterns effectively. He also ran against a candidate plagued by scandal and widely disliked.