It’s no secret that President Trump is an active user of Twitter. David Meerman Scott thought that had a big impact on why Trump won. I don’t necessarily agree, but in an election that was decided by fewer than 100,000 votes across three states, almost anything could be said to have made the difference.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), the first year Representative from The Bronx and Queens in NYC, has a totally different and even more impressive use of social media.
First, the numbers: She has 2.40 million followers on Twitter, 1.8 million on Instagram (each up 200,000 in just the last week), and 425,000 on Facebook (Facebook is not her thing, and she’s not real active on it).
After winning her election (she upset the incumbent in the primary and was unopposed in the general election), she did a great job of sharing with people what it was like to be a freshman rep.
For example, she wasn’t the least ashamed of where she had come up from. She posted about how she couldn’t afford to move to DC until her Congressional pay started; she simply didn’t have enough money saved.
She put her new medical coverage in the context of the coverage she had had as a waitress.
And when conservatives improbably posted a video of her dancing in college as if it was some kind of scandal, she responded with a very short video of herself dancing in her congressional office.
While Trump pretty much sticks to text, AOC uses lots of images and video. Most of all, she seems to be having a lot of fun, unlike Trump who seems to constantly be scowling and angry.
She’s just really good at this. And as a result has – by far – the second most social media mentions of any politician. After just two weeks in office!
