Hillary Clinton's candidacy and social media expertise

Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy given a helping hand with her social media expertise

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton released a video just over 2 minutes long stating her intention to run for president on her You Tube channel. Her message: 'Everyday Americans need a champion. I want to be that champion.' It's only a few hours since its release and has over a million views.

With 3.5 million Twitter followers and nearly 600,000 Facebook fans, she has a great deal of potential reach over her current opponents, Texas Senator Ted Cruz (390,000 on Twitter) and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (600,000 on Twitter).

Hillary has an unequalled range of experience to inform her on the campaign trail: First Lady to one of America's most successful presidents ever, a failed attempt in 2008 to run for president, and 4 years serving Barak Obama. Whereas her first candidacy was bullish and strong, in an attempt to prove she had the balls to run the country, Hillary now knows she needs to appeal in a much more humble fashion, appealing to the the millions of middle class Americans who can turn the tide in her favour.

Despite her 67 years, Hillary's understanding and frequent use of social media will stand her in good stead to reach the younger generation, as well as the big bulge in the female side of the demographic who regularly use social media platforms such such Twitter and Facebook.

On a smaller scale in New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern has shown the benefits of intelligent and knowledgable use of social media to increase awareness and promote herself to the younger, more tech savvy New Zealanders.

The video is the first on Clinton's new You Tube channel, which started on April 8th 2015 and at the time of going to press has 12,000 subscribers. There are numerous opportunities available for candidates across social media including the recent Twitter acquisition Periscope, a live streaming app. That 3.5 million Twitter following will be advised directly each time she broadcasts on the app, giving her huge opportunities for communicating her message across the whole country at minimal cost.

Clinton's tech savvy campaign manager, Robby Mook, will be well placed to capitalise on swathe of new platforms which have appeared in the world of social media since her last campaign in 2008.

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