š¦Trump Tweets As A Genre
American politicians love social media trolling: The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter #70
So unless youāve been under a rock this past week, you heard Twitter permanently suspended Donald Trumpās account. Lots of other services deplatformed Trump or discontinued offering their services to his team, too -- but letās talk Twitter right now.
There are about 2,000,000 places online where you can read about the *WHY* of the President getting his Twitter account suspended, so Iāll skip that part. Instead, note Trumpāsā¦ distinct Twitter style and why politicians will continue to crib from it for years to come.
Trump Tweets = Genre
Donald Trumpās trademark Twitter use--a mix of bombast, conspiracy theories (remember Trump and birtherism?), gratuitous reposting of memes, retweets from fans and s**tposting--are relatively common for celebrities, but were largely without precedent for a presidential candidate and President. Thatās what made them so unique.
Putting politics to the side, hereās what Trump did differently with Twitter:
USING TWITTER AS A WAY TO BYPASS MEDIATORS: This is the first crucial thing. Even though the Obama campaigns and administration used Twitter prolifically, they used Twitter in a very traditional wayāto reach audiences as a supplement to other social media platforms and traditional media. In contrast, Trump used Twitter as a primary messaging mechanism to reach audiences without the mediator of the press or television networks.
MESSAGING TO THE BASE, NOT THE MASSES: Trump destigmatized the idea in the United States of elected politicians tailoring messaging to their voter base, as opposed to constituents. Trump as President wasnāt tweeting to his constituents, the citizens of the United States: He was tweeting to his core voters.
RETWEET, RETWEET, RETWEET: Realizing the power of the bully pulpit of the Presidency, Trump used his Twitter account to actively retweet content from fan accounts, fringe political groups, and media allies--a far cry from the traditional politician tactics of retweeting content from conventional media like CNN or the New York Times. The fact that he was retweeting content from white nationalist accounts and false information about the COVID-19 pandemic was a feature, not a bug.
COARSENESS AS ENGAGEMENT: From a top-level perspective, Trumpās tweets grew in engagement as messaging and content became more outrageous. Trumpās public online communication style is that of an opinionated reality television personality rather than that of a politician or a real estate developer, something reflected in his tweeting.
BREAKING BEHAVIORAL NORMS: This is the last crucial thing. Trump was more than happy to engage in incitement, race baiting, conspiracy theories, posting dodgy content and trash talking of political rivals--something that endeared him with supporters and political allies.
And that genie canāt go back in the bottle. The engagement numbers are just too good.
Trumpās Twitter Legacy On The Left And The Right
Not too long ago, but in a different media world, it was hard to imagine one of the three richest people in the world enthusiastically posting Twitter memes.
But Elon Musk isnāt your typical Extremely Rich Person, and chances are pretty good he wouldnāt be posting memes if President Trump hadnāt first removed the stigma of Extremely Powerful People posting memes.
Look at American politicians across the ideological spectrum and the influence of Trump on Twitter personas is obvious. Here are some examples spanning federal, state and local politics: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and New York City Councilperson Joe Borelli on the right and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman on the left.
Keep in mind this precedent: Trump normalized politicians trolling opponents and posting memes on Twitter.
Hereās the thing: The old world where politicians worried about reputational hits from trolling rivals on Twitter or where Twitter was an adjunct tool for constituent reachout is gone forever. Instead, we have a future of politicians going all in on performative online personas on Twitter until the next big platform comes to dominance.
And politicians who only post boring tweets and press releases and photo ops will be at a distinct disadvantage.
FURTHER READING:
The New York Times huge data set of how Trump reshaped the Presidency in 11,000 tweets. (Michael D. Shear/Maggie Haberman/Nicholas Confessore/Karen Yourish/Larry Buchanan/Keith Collins @ NYT)
The use of Twitter as a propaganda and organizing tool in modern warfare has a lot of crossover to contemporary politics as well. (Emerson T. Brooking/P.W. Singer @ The Atlantic)
How Twitter and Facebookās differing business models influence how politicians use each platform. (The Economist)
Things Iāve Enjoyed Lately:
Checking out Microsoft Outlookās coming redesign.
Ex-Camper Van Beethovener David Loweryās Twitter threads on how little money musicians actually earn from streaming platforms.
Robert Sapolskyās Stanford class on human behavioral biology free on YouTube. (And, yes, irony of having this right below David Loweryās tweet completely noted. With that said, itās a damn good class.)
Reader Mail:
Newsletter reader Iolanda C., following up on our roundup of 2021 industry predictions, also sent along these:
Ericsson - 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2030
Deloitte - Technology, Media and Telecommunications Predictions 2021
WARC - The Marketerās Toolkit 2021
ā¦and let the trendspotting commence. Thanks Iolanda!
About This Newsletter: Neal Ungerleider is a strategic communications consultant who works with clients on white papers, magazine columns, videos and other marketing-y things. Check out his bio, his portfolio, and current projects.
Connect on Twitter or LinkedIn and learn more about at nealungerleider.com. To reach Neal, reply to this email or drop a line in the comments.