Pinterest

• Audience: Women, ages 18-44

• The average user spends 20~ minutes on Pinterest

• Pinterest is a good way to “personify” a campaign

• Both Gavin Newsom and Michelle Obama have been praised for their upkeep of highly successful Pinterest accounts

• Appeals to more than politics – boards such as “Crafts/DIY” and “The Obama Family Table” expand campaign influence into less politicized areas of interest

Who’s using it well: Gavin Newsom, Michelle Obama

Gavin Newsom: Winter of Love, Photo of the Day, Books, San Francisco Giants

Michelle Obama: Great Memories, People Who Inspire Me, Recipe Ideas

Instagram

• Very large audience: 6.5 billion users; 300 million are active monthly

• About 50/50 split of male and female users

• Each user spends 21~ minutes on the site each day

• Young, technologically-savvy audience

• Image-based sharing is easier for audience to engage and connect with;

very popular with young voters

Who’s using it well: Elise Stefanik • Stays highly connected with district members via

Instagram• Provides frequent photo updates of meetings,

speaking engagements, and Congressional happenings

• First candidate to Instagram her official Congressional filing

Vine• Short, 6-second videos that users can “re-vine” and comment on. Option for users to sort vines through categories• Both parties have utilized vines to reach public; many Republican candidates used it to respond to Obama’s State of the

Union address • Options like Periscope, Meerkat allow for similar engagement but no length limitations (but unlike the two newer apps,

Vine does not delete videos)

Who’s using it well: Eric Swalwell (D-CA)• Frequent viner, engages and “reloops” users

often

• Has vined himself voting on controversial bills in

California Vine Username: RepSwalwell

Vine: Examples

Live Video Apps: Periscope and Meerkat• Both platforms let users broadcast

live, shareable video

• Voters can interact in real-time

with messages, hearts and

comments

• You can subscribe to a user’s video

feed, enabling candidates to build

strong engagement bases

• Periscope was launched by Twitter,

while Meerkat is an independent

app (that users still engage with

via Twitter)

Meerkat• Live, shareable video

platform• Users can receive• notifications every time a

candidate goes live• Can share, retweet,

comment • Videos disappear after

live event ends

Who’s using it well: Jeb Bush• Shares speeches, press releases,

etc.• One of the first politicians to

integrate Meerkat into political efforts

• Live videos on Twitter + option of saving them for 24 hours

• Senator John Thune and Jerry Moran used it to give recent speeches, press conferences

Periscope