*With the 2016 Presidential Elections looming in America, SEO Specialist Raksha decided to delve a little deeper into how the presidential candidates have used digital marketing for their campaigns and more importantly, how this has helped get them where they are today.*
One of the most prominent channels we saw was social media, which has been the frontrunner in terms of connecting with people and attracting people to both websites.
**How have both parties used social media?**
From a first glance at the social media statistics we can see that Republican candidate Donald Trump looks like the winner when it comes to followers, but this could be down to the fact that he is a ‘celebrity’.
** ****Donald****Hillary****Twitter**12.4 million9.7 million**Facebook**11.3 million7 million**Instagram**2.6 million2.4 millionThese numbers, compared to the frequency of posts from both candidates, with Trump posting more times than Hillary, and the number of hashtags used (#trump being used over 200,000 within the past 24 hours alone) shows that if people in America voted as they shared, retweeted and posted, Donald Trump should be packing his bags for the White House come November 8th!
The next question that needs to be asked is how both candidates are actually using social media in terms of the content they are posting and what they are actually saying. The differences between both are clear, with Hillary coming across as a corporate brand and using social media as a science to reach out to her supporters. Donald posts using a more emotional approach, connecting with his fans in a more artistic, human way.
**Their websites**
Next, we looked at how the social media activity between the two parties translates into the way each candidate uses their website. With the help of tools such as SEMrush and SimilarWeb, we determined how both websites correlate with the messages both parties are portraying on social media.
### ***hillaryclinton.com***
Hillary’s website is more business-like with prominent calls to action and the use of analytics tools to track information, as well as a mobile app for supporters. Looking at engagement levels on SimilarWeb, the usability of the site translates into higher traffic numbers over the past three months for Hillary compared to Donald – a different picture to the social media stats!
(image: https://assets.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/03093413/trump-vs-clinton-1024×193.png alt: trump-vs-clinton)
### ***donaldjtrump.com***
Donald’s website does have some calls to action, but by featuring a prominent picture of him and his running mate, Mike Pence, the message seems to focus on Donald the man himself rather than any policies he has. Saying that however, his celebrity status and controversial posts help make his content on social media more popular even though his site isn’t as engaging.
This then begs the question: as much as Donald is winning at social and getting the engagement via Twitter and other social channels, are people interested in the man himself as a controversial figure, or do they actually see him as a serious Presidential candidate for the United States of America? We believe that engagement and traffic figures to both websites sway very much to the former rather than the latter.
With only a week to go, the focus on each candidate is sky high and here at Superdream, we’ll be keeping a close eye on how the elections pan out.