The 2016 presidential election was one to remember. Many dramatic events happed throughout the campaign season; including Hillary Clintons email scandal. The election was going to be challenging for candidates because it would be hard to reach all demographics and gain the majority of the votes. The way they would reach out to the voters, was by social media. Social media had a huge impact on the 2016 election. All social media apps were used in one way or another by candidates to try to reach voters. Social media was also used to attack other candidates as well as candidate supporters. Social Media effected the 2016 presidential election by persuading, interacting, and angering the voters. 

One of the only ways the twenty-three men and women who ran for president in the election could get a voter’s attention, was by persuading them. After a long and grueling election year, President Donald Trump came out victorious. There were many republican and democrat primary debates. The republican primary debates consisted of all the candidates just trying to get a word in. The democrat primary debates consisted of mainly Hillary Clinton controlling the debate and Bernie Sanders trying to get a word in. Within a year, all the candidates dropped out before the conventions except Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump. There was lot of debate that President Donald Trump should not get the nomination and they should nominate someone else or make it a tie. People weren’t ready for Trump to win the nomination because they couldn’t accept their own defeat. However, the convention went smoothly when President Trump was nominated. Hillary Clinton did not have much opposition form the Democratic Party, just Bernie Sanders’s supporters. The DNC Chairman Debbie Wassermann Schultz, was forced to leave her position because it was proven that during the primary season the DNC favored Clinton the whole time. During the last few months before November eighth, President Trump and Hillary Clinton went back and forth debating via social media. Online, Clinton would say things to President Trump that she would not say to his face. President Trump would say things to Clinton online too; however, was ground on his beliefs and would face her and tell her the truth. Over 84 million people tuned in to the first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It was the most viewed presidential debate since 1980, which was the debate between President Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter. The 2016 U.S. presidential election was without a doubt, very unprecedented. (Stelter)  

Majority of Americans believe whatever they read on the internet, even if it is absurd. Social media does an outstanding job when it comes to persuading people. Many individuals post fake information on Facebook, Instagram, twitter, and even snapchat, and any normal person could easily believe wrong information. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election there were many fake advertisements on social media and people would believe it. For example, a few women came out and said that President Trump has sexual assaulted them in some way many years ago. However, the women were just saying this because they wanted to ruin his political career. Interestingly enough, they were Hilary Clinton supporters. (Shalby) Advertisements online were also a source of persuasion. On Facebook, sometimes ads will pop-up and have information that is shocking, for example one would say, this just in, if Donald Trump gets elected president, all Hispanics will be deported back to their countries. This is false information that was advertised; but the information in the advertisement is completely false. Another way social media was used to persuade voters, was the use of twitter. Candidates would use the 140 characters to get their message across and help voters understand there polices more clearly. (Bode, et al.) 

Persuading voters at the last minute was also a technique used in the 2016 election. An article written in The New York Times, said that twitter reached out to PACs and Super PACs about posting advertisements election day morning. (Ember, et al.) A PAC is a political action committee. They are created to promote specific causes and they try to influence the government. PACs usually raise millions of dollars. Many PACs will come out and support a candidate in hopes that that candidates will help create legislature to help their cause if put into office. Twitter would want the PACs to do this because they would receive money from the PACs, but the PACs would benefit because they would persuade voters to vote for their candidate. Social media has become the most efficient way to influence voters on election day legally. PACs and Super PACs, or anybody cannot show support with t-shirts, signs, flags, etc. at the voting booths. It is also illegal to tell people who to vote for at the polling places. 

Social media has become a great way to do this because people can and will have their phones while waiting in line at the polls. More than likely a majority of people waiting in line on their phones, have at least one social media app. Candidates post ads up until the very end. Last minute ads also help persuade people to come out to vote. The ad could use the bandwagon propaganda technique by telling the individual reading the ad, that they will be the odd one out if they do not vote for a particular candidate. It seems silly, but many Americans, and just humans in general and be persuaded very easily. 

Another way social media was used in the 2016 election was to involve likely voters. Individuals under the age of twenty-nine are less likely to vote. However, majority of them have social networking apps. Candidates took advantage of this knowledge in the past election. As R. Kay Green wrote, “The ability to reach the millennial demographic is an important component to campaign efforts. And the reason why is simply because young adults are shifting more of their attention online to social networks. Candidates are naturally incorporating social media in their campaigns to stand out to millennials.” (Green) Also the millennials are more likely to vote because the candidates are participating on social media sites. As Dhiraji stated, “In some cases, Twitter has been found to increase voter engagement.” (Murthy 818) Also, most millennials are not willing to do much research on candidates. Many millennials are not informed about the policies proposed by the candidates. In recent years, there has been a decline of patriotism among the millennials. The younger generation does not respect America like they used to. Patriotism has been lost. Majority of millennials will just listen to what their friend tells them about politics and believe it. That is not a good habit for the younger generation to hang on to. That is why it is so important that the candidates make it easy for those just starting to vote to understand their policies. 

It is also important to interact with the voters on a personal level. Some candidates were better at that then others. As in McGregor, Cardona, and Lawrence put it, it is becoming a lot easier for there to be communication between the candidates and the voters by saying “Personalization is marked by dynamics that strengthen the power of individual politicians.”. (McGregor et al. 265) Candidates that interact with voters, are the most successful. President Trump stayed active the whole election on twitter and Instagram. President Trump was not able to actually interact with people one-on-one, but he made it feel that way. He would single out veterans, women, factory workers, etc., and make it feel like he was talking to them personally. He would have interacted with voters one on one but he wasn’t able to, just because he has millions of followers. In comparison, Jeb Bush was able to go back and forth with people one on one because he didn’t have as many people asking him questions and also didn’t have the followers President Trump has. Everybody likes to feel like they are a part of in the electoral process. The more interacting the voter gets, the more they feel connected. By the voters having the feeling like they are connecting with the candidates, the voter is more likely to vote for that individual because they feel like they know the candidate on a personal level. It candidates post pictures of their family that would help get the older voters’ vote because they feel like they are the candidates friend. The more family pictures the candidates post the better. The more a candidate can make an individual feel important, the more successful they will be.

Social media effected the 2016 campaign in a negative way by angering voters. People now more than ever get highly offended very easily. It is one thing to be sensitive, but its anything thing being weak. In today’s society, liberals tend to have the hardest time. Majority of them are offended way to easily and this becomes a problem. The government and even people will not get very far if people keeping holding actions up, just because something offended them. For example, Donald Trump said this referring to Asians, “When these people walk into the room, they don't say, 'Oh hello, how's the weather? It's so beautiful outside. How are the Yankees doing? They're doing wonderful, that's great," Trump said at an event in Iowa. "They say, 'We want deal!’” (Kopan) After he said this, some Asians and most liberals went to social media to talk about how offended they were. President said this statement light hearted, many Asians thought the statement was comical, because it’s an accurate statement. President is very well- known for being a user of twitter. In 2012 President Trump tweeted, “Obama will go down as the worst President in history on many topics but especially foreign policy.!” (Donald J. Trump, Twitter) This tweet is very aggressive towards the former President Barak Obama. By tweeting this, Donald Trump took criticism from President Obama supporters. This made them very angry with Present Trump. The people angered by this tweet probably didn’t vote for President Trump. However, it benefited President Trump in a way because all the voters who do not like Obama and may be undecided would like this tweet and support President Trump. A lot of people want to say things but they are worried that will get backlash. On the democratic side, at an event Hillary Clinton said some words about Trump’s supporters. Alastair Jaimeson wrote, “Hillary Clinton urged supporters late Friday not to be complacent about Donald Trump's chances of winning the election, saying half of his backers were "desperate for change" but the other half belonged in a "basket of deplorables." (Jaimeson) This comment angered President Trump supports. However, they weren’t offended by the label of deplorable, they embraced it. A few days later the word deplorable was everywhere, but it wasn’t a bad thing anymore. President Trump supports would even make posters that said, “Deplorables for Trump.” Trump supporters turned a bad label into a good label.

 Voters for both President Trump and Hillary Clinton were both angered when scandals about them surfaced. There were many scandals for both candidates. The most prevalent at the end of the campaign was the women who accused Trump of sexual assault and the Trump University scandal. (Shalby) Clinton supporters were outraged by these scandals. The democratic party cares deeply about women’s rights, so members of the party were highly offended when this news broke. Many republicans were very upset at President Trump as well. If he had actually committed sexual assault on the women, that would have been a deciding factor in the election. The democrats along with many republicans were not happy about the Trump University case, which claimed that President Trump coned people. In the end the women gave up and the Trump university case was settled.  However, the largest scandal of the election was Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. Clinton used a private server while secretary of state and disused classified information with people she should not have. There were hearings about the case and Clinton finally admitted that having the private email server was not a good idea. However, 30,000 emails to this day cannot be found. Many wanted to convict her because if she is guilty, she would have to go to prison. Trump supports are in favor of this idea. At Trump rallies there were buttons that said, “Hillary for Prison.” Clinton avoided the topic as much as she could. After Trump was elected, the whole situation died down.  

Another way voters were easily angered, was by the limitations they had. When it comes to social media there are few restrictions to what can’t go online, one being pictures of a voter’s ballot. Information form CNNs AJ Willingham said, “While it's a lovely showing of civic pride, selfies with your ballot could get you in trouble”. (Willingham) This mentions a negative result that social media plays on the political campaigns. By not being able to take pictures at the ballot it may limit some voters surprisingly, because it will not involve them. Some individuals who are not motivated to vote may think taking pictures at the ballot would get them attention and would make them want to vote. Regardless, it does not help involve the voters. Social media is becoming more and more prevalent. Nowadays it is rare to see a phone that isn’t a smartphone. Voters shouldn’t be limited when it comes to showing support for their candidate if it doesn’t infringe on someone else. Additionally, there are many individuals that done believe social media can influence someone. Some people are stubborn and are very can’t be persuaded easily. However, more than in the past people have become lazy. They don’t do their research. In the past, it might have been harder to change people’s mind because people regularly read the newspaper and were informed on what was going on in politics. However, in 2016, most people just go to their Facebook feed to find out information.

Presidential elections in the U.S. are becoming more competitive every election cycle. Candidates have to find new ways to get votes. In the 2016 presidential election they looked to social media to persuade, interact, and anger the voters. Voting attendance has been decreasing in the last twenty years. It is crucial for candidates to get voters on board with them, even if they haven’t voted before. This past election year, candidates sent out more volunteers then usually to go door to door, asking people if they had registered and if they have not, they should. Candidates also see the benefit of interacting with voters and connecting with them on a personal level. The personal connection helps the voters feel more comfortable as well as, hold the candidates to their word. It is also so important that the candidates establish their supporters. People will disagree for thousands of more years, that will never change. However, candidates should be truthful and say what they mean. They should also be honest with the voters. Candidates in the future need to utilize social media in the future like President Trump and Hilary Clinton did to get voters talking. 
