Right now, most people depend on Facebook for their everyday news. And while this may be most true for the younger generation, there is no doubt that even older individuals have found the appeal and ease of using social media. The website, which started out as a humble place to share photos, has transformed into a very powerful political platform.
The Appeal Of Facebook
According to The Wall Street Journal, Citigroup, Inc. has estimated that spending on political ads via Facebook will surmount the spending on Google. If so, this will be the first time in history this has happened.
The publication reasons out that this is because of Facebook's ability to reach narrow target audiences. So a political ad that is meant for a specific purpose will be seen by its ideal public with the help of facebook. For one day in August, the campaign of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump alone via Facebook led to 100,000 different websites, each of which were micro-targeted.
The Numbers
"Everybody thought 2008 was the Facebook election, but I'd argue 2016 is the Facebook election," said Zac Moffatt, former digital director for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and the co-founder of political consultancy Targeted Victory. "Facebook's real value is in its size and scale. ... It's that you can hit three out of four Americans on one platform."
Facebook's ability to each such a vast amount of people is appealing in terms of getting the stand of most Americans, much like how polls work. With these numbers, political advisers will then target undecided voters to swing to their side, or push willing voters to actually go to the polls.
Facebook Skews Towards The Democratic Party
However, while Facebook has definitely reached most - if not all - generations, it still does have its niche audiences. As The Washington Post notes, Facebook still appeals more to women and the younger generation. And as such, most of the social network's numbers tend to shift towards US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Of course, this is not to be taken as a sure sign that the elections will swing one way or the other. Because while Facebook does provide a relatively clear picture of how things, it still does not cover the entire American demographic.
