The Media That Loves Trump

I think it's pretty well understood by the general public that Trump believes the media is against him and that he thinks they want Hillary to win the election.  But what about social media?

During the last debate, their was a terrible flurry of tweets that promoted hate rhetoric within their posts.  Twitter does not have the same well-prepared methods that Facebook has to try to block hate rhetoric.  But what did Facebook do?

In the face of Trump-inspired comments, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg made a decision NOT to authorize Facebook employees to block the Trump posts.

So why has social media not blocked Trump's hateful rhetoric and his supporters' hateful comments?

I think it's a simple game called Follow the Money combined with the knowledge that when Facebook or Twitter begin to moderate our political opinions, people will move to a new social medium.  Facebook's advertisements have been a major recipient of campaign money in this election and I think that they're smart enough to avoid biting the hand that feeds them.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/10/21/facebook-employees-tried-remove-trump-posts-hate-speech/92524494/

Trump: Sex Scandals are Media Conspiracy

This election is in the tank - and not the military vehicle!

With Trump's degrading description of women and accusations of sex scandals and Clinton's criminal e-mail deletions, we have poor choices for the next person to occupy the White House.

I'd like to start by pointing out something.  In any relationship, it is important to apologize when you've made a mistake.  After Trump's nasty remarks about women, he apologized.  After Hillary's e-mail scandal, she did not.  I think being able to apologize says something about your character... Trump made a huge mistake.  Colossal.  Bigger than his you-know-what.  But at least he had the balls to apologize.

I feel like the election is between a political crook and a business crook, but I'll be honest - I'm fairly cynical when it comes to any politicians.

Although Trump freely admitted to the degrading comments about women (that would have been tough to deny), he has defended himself against the sex scandal allegations.  His words were:

“These lies spread by the media, without witnesses, without backup or anything else, are poisoning the minds of the electorate. No witnesses, no backup or anything else.” - Trump

He feels the media is conspiring against him, muckraking because they would rather have Hillary in the White House than him.  He then made a point, questioning why she had not brought it up before... which I found to be valid.  Why did she not bring it up before? Or did the media just not care before?

In any case, I definitely see the media as pro-Clinton.  I don't find that surprising since they tend to be liberal in general.  But I feel that they will play an important part between keeping Trump accountable and being fair to both candidates.  

You can check out an interesting WSJ article here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-denies-new-sexual-misconduct-claims-calling-allegations-a-conspiracy-1476478799

Social Media & Politics

The world of advertising is undergoing major changes.  The radio has lost many listeners to companies like Spotify, Amazon Prime, and Pandora.  The television industry is also changing due to the popularity of TiVo and DVRs, which allow viewers to tape shows, then watch them back and skip the commercials.  Although billboards and mailers are still viable options for campaign advertising, a new leader has arrived: social media.  And it is pretty well recognized that Facebook (at least for now) is the king of social media.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is leading in 2016 election campaign advertising.  I, for one, must say that I am on social media almost constantly, so their advertising dollars are paying off on my account.  Most (if not all) of my friends have Facebook accounts, and although they may not check their social media as often as I do, they can easily be targeted for ads.

You may or may not know that I am a Disney travel agent.  For my business, my Facebook page and blog use Facebook ads frequently because one of the biggest perks of social media advertising is that you can design a target audience.  According to this article, campaign dollars have been wisely spent on targeted audiences through Facebook advertising.  Facebook, which is already uber-profitable, has hit yet another home run.

Feel free to weigh in and let me know if you find Facebook ads work well for you. And have you seen political ads on your news feeds?

You can check out the WSJ article here:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-facebook-is-dominating-the-2016-election-1475429365?mod=e2tw