Background

I analyzed the Twitter and Instagram accounts of Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO), former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) (D-NY) over the course of six months, September 2019 - February 2020. 

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Sen. Gardner, Rep. Crenshaw, and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez are all up for re-election in 2020, and Hickenlooper is the current Democratic frontrunner challenging Gardner's Senate seat. 

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The two Colorado politicians are older than the two "social media stars" who have millions of followers on social media, many of whom are the platforms chief audience: Millennials (1981-1996) and Generation Zers (born 1997-2012).

 

Social media is changing the political landscape as far as how politicians campaign, how they interact with constituents, and how they create a social media brand for themselves to win over potential voters. Many politicians are late to the game and have not yet mastered the art of being "successful" on social media, while others have made politics exciting and popular among young Americans simply because of their social media accounts. 

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Gardner and Hickenlooper are not "digital natives," or those who have grown up with the Internet, laptops, cellphones, and social media at their fingertips. Understanding social media platforms is akin to understanding a language and its cultural norms; those who are native to the language can detect when someone is a "foreigner" and may know some of the language but don't fully understand the uses, nuances, and etiquette. 

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To overcome this foreign presence, politicians who are not familiar with social media must work harder if they want to engage with potential young voters. This can take many forms: learning more about social media, hiring the right staff members to control their social media accounts, or working with social media "influencers" to share their content and help them become trendy.  

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Many politicians can no longer get by without having social media accounts, particularly if they are running for re-election in a competitive district or state. Gardner is running for his second term in a historically purple state against a former governor. The ways that Gardner and Hickenlooper are utilizing their social media are important to analyze, juxtaposed with more popular, digital native politicians like Crenshaw and Ocasio-Cortez, because it will paint a picture of how politicians are succeeding (or failing) to connect with the young people that dominate these platforms and perhaps what they can do better. 

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Methods

Starting on September 1, 2019, I counted the number of Instagram and Twitter posts from one Democrat and one Republican, and then counted the same for the other Democrat and Republican the next day, September 2, 2019. I also summarized the content of the post and categorized them over time.

 

I began with Gardner and Ocasio-Cortez first day, a Sunday, and then Crenshaw and Hickenlooper on the next day, a Monday. The following week, I analyzed Gardner and Ocasio-Cortez's feeds again on Monday and Hickenlooper's and Crenshaw's on Tuesday, and so on for six months.

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Below are the findings, as well as their social media statistics and examples of their content. 

 

Quantitative Analysis

Twitter & Instagram Statistics (as of March 1, 2020)

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Hickenlooper only has one Instagram account and one Twitter account, while Crenshaw has one Instagram account and two Twitter accounts: an official, Congressional Twitter account and a personal Twitter account. Both Gardner and AOC have four accounts: a personal and a congressional Twitter account, and a personal and a congressional Instagram account. Crenshaw and AOC post more often to their personal accounts, while Gardner posts most often to his official account. 

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Professor Toby Hopp from the University of Colorado Boulder offers an expert opinion on this phenomenon, as his research focuses on digital and interactive media and online communication. 

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"To a certain extent, there's probably a generational thing going on here. AOC is 30 years old and, at this moment in time, something of a non-traditional politician (in a number of different ways). My guess is that in her pre-political life she used social media in a way not so dissimilar from you and I - to stay in touch with friends, learn about things going on in the world, and so on. Once she became a political figure, she simply modified this behavior to help her achieve her political and electoral objectives. As a non-digital native, Gardner is a bit different. He's using social media in a politically instrumental (i.e., personally inauthentic) way insofar as he sees it as a one-way communication tool that has potential primarily as it relates to top-down brand management."

                   

Content Analysis 

The content of the four politicians' tweets and posts was categorized into 16 major groups, listed below.

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Comparing the Republican content charts on the left to the Democratic content charts on the right, it’s clear that foreign relations is the most common category for the two Republicans and the economy, environment, and the president are most popular for the two Democrats. For the two Coloradans, Gardner posts about foreign relations and the economy most often, while Hickenlooper focuses on the environment and state infrastructure. Hickenlooper’s feed is more diversified among categories and Gardner’s is concentrated on only a handful of issues.

 

Gardner completely omitted posts in the education, social justice, and presidential categories. Hickenlooper has no tweets or posts regarding foreign relations, while Gardner’s is the exact opposite with the bulk of his content focusing on those issues, like trade, immigration, and international news.

 

Another interesting dynamic to observe is how the popular, social media politicians (Crenshaw and AOC) both devote 15% of their tweets to the president, with Crenshaw’s mostly positive and AOC’s mostly negative. The two Coloradans barely address Trump, perhaps to dissociate themselves with the commander-in-chief as they look to win the Senate race in a purple state.  

 

They were then more broadly categorized into four major types of posts: Election issues, Issues of the Day, Political issues, and Other issues. The breakdown of each candidates' posts are below. 

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Gardner’s combined Instagram and Twitter feeds feature three-quarters issues of the day, and about one-fourth “Other” posts, which are non-political. Hickenlooper’s feed has less issues of the day and more posts regarding his election, which is partly attributable to the fact that Gardner mainly posts on his congressional accounts, not his personal accounts. Therefore, he must focus on his duties as a Senator and cannot post about his campaign.

 

Nonetheless, Gardner could still post about town halls, his personal views on issues, or other politicians running for election (for example, AOC endorsing Bernie on her page is considered an “Election” post) and generate election content. But his singular election-related post in the analysis came at the end of February regarding precinct caucuses. His campaign Instagram was just launched in February, while Hickenlooper’s team has been actively working on his for over half a year. And Gardner’s personal Twitter doesn’t address the campaign too often either.

 

In contrast, the social media “stars” have a more balanced feed to cater to their millions of followers. Crenshaw posts more about politics (in regards to the president, the opposing party, and the government in general) than any of the other three, while AOC has the most evenly divided “Election,” “Politics,” and “Other” posts.

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Qualitative Analysis 

Not only do the "stars" have a more balanced feed, but they seem to understand the platform and do not get "ratioed" nearly as often as Gardner. Being ratioed on Instagram or Twitter is when you receive more comments than likes or favorites on your post, indicating that it was not popular for the medium. Many of the comments on Senator Gardner's tweets are negative feelings from constituents, regardless of the tweet's content. 

 

During the last week of February (Feb. 23 - Feb. 29, 2020), I analyzed the ratio of comments to favorites on all of Gardner and Hickenlooper's tweets. While both politicians had around the same number of tweets during that week (26 and 27, respectively), the engagement they generated was vastly different. 

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Gardner averaged approximately 141 likes on his tweets, while Hickenlooper averaged approximately 146 likes. However, Hickenlooper's tweets received an average of 9.48 comments and Gardner's tweets received more than ten times that with an average of 95.57 comments per tweet. 

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"The comments under his tweets give upset constituents a place to yell at him," Hopp said. "Obviously, this doesn't help his reputation. Does this actively 'hurt' him, electorally speaking? Probably not in any measurable, cause-and-effect type way."

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While they may not be hurting him in a substantial way, many of these comments are not generating positive engagement for the senator. This begs the question as to why he is even on social media in the first place. 

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"Using social media effectively requires a strategy and substantial effort. It takes time and resources and a desire to use a given platform to connect with others. If political figures are willing to put in this time and effort, they can, potentially, see gains, particularly as they relate to the ability to articulate one's personal and political brand. For many political figures (e.g., Cory Gardner), however, social media seems to be something of an afterthought. That's fine, I suppose. But why maintain an account? What purpose does it serve?"

 

Many of these comments are not generating positive engagement for the senator. This begs the question as to why he is even on social media in the first place if he is not trying to create a positive brand for himself or uses it to interact with the constituents, as many of the comments go un-replied to.

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In one of the ratioed tweets on February 26 that received 416 likes and 556 comments, Gardner shared a report ranking him #1 for bipartisan legislation.  

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Some comments included:

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In contrast, Crenshaw and AOC receive such a substantial amount of likes on their tweets and posts that they are nowhere near the breakeven ratios that Gardner often boasts. While they also receive negative comments, the large scale of supporters and followers still allows them to avoid getting ratioed.  

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A key social media tactic that these two representatives have also mastered is the "clapback," which occurs when someone responds to something posted by someone else on social media in a witty, clever, sarcastic, or critical way. 

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One of AOC's most famous clapbacks garnered her 416.5K favorites on Twitter. 

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As for Crenshaw, a notable clapback to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders generated 27K favorites. 

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These tweets illustrate that, while social media followers may be about quantity, social media usage is quality over quantity. Gardner has nearly 4,000 more tweets than Crenshaw, but Crenshaw is rarely ratioed and often has tweets that trend on Twitter.

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While Instagram is less about ratios and more about posting visually-appealing and genuine content, it is still just as important to understand the etiquette and norms of the medium. Below are comparisons of the four politicians grids for a qualitative analysis. 

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Cory Gardner                                                          John Hickenlooper

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Dan Crenshaw                                                       Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 

 

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Three key issues arose when Gen Zers were exposed to these Instagram feeds: maintaining a clear and cohesive brand; posting relatable and interesting content; and upholding authenticity.

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First, it troubled some Gen Zers that they could not determine a politician's political affiliation by scrolling through their page. 

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"From his grid you don’t get a good sense of who he [Cory Gardner] is or what he stands for," said Elisa McMillan, a senior at the University of Colorado Boulder. "From this I wouldn’t be able to tell what party he’s affiliated with, which is weird."

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Many noted that it was easier to determine what Crenshaw and AOC believed without clicking on a single picture and simply by looking at their grids.

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Phrases like "Is white supremacy not a global issue?" coupled with photos featuring the LGBTQ flag, former Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, and environmental activist Greta Thunberg all provide evidence for an outsider looking in that AOC is likely a Democrat.

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Crenshaw's account received similar comments, with his clapback at Democrat Adam Schiff, photos depicting support for military, screenshot of something positive that President Trump tweeted, and a video captioned, "Hey Senator Warren! Here's your answer." The combination of these visual cues denoted to the Gen Zers that Crenshaw was likely a Republican.

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Both AOC and Crenshaw's pages made it clear to both Gen Zers who knew their party affiliations beforehand as well as those who did not. 

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While AOC's account did possess the element of clarity, her page lacked cohesion, which is what many Gen Zers liked about Crenshaw and Hickenlooper's Instagram accounts. For Hickenlooper, it was the consistent color scheme, photo editing, and recurring Black History Month posts.

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For Crenshaw, it was the recurring video segments entitled, “Here’s The Truth,” in which the representative consistently shares his take on a variety of issues. In addition, several Gen Zers appreciated Crenshaw’s clear, bold titles on each video that are readable without even clicking on the video so they could decide what to watch by quickly scrolling through his grid.

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Without this clear and cohesive brand, both in the visual quality of the posts as well as their content, it is difficult for Gen Zers to understand their mission.

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Secondly, Gen Zers emphasized the importance of posting relatable and interesting content.

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Taylor Schalk, a political science student at the University of Colorado Boulder, said Gardner should post more interesting content to engage with young voters. 

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“Even if I’m really passionate about Cory Gardner and his message and his mission, I would not follow him because it would just, like, clog up my feed instead of be stuff that I would, like, want to pay attention to I guess, because it’s not innovative or creative, it’s just boring.” 

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Schalk also said that even though Hickenlooper’s feed seems to be more cohesive at first glance, “when you look more into it, it is kind of ‘blah.’”

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In contrast, the Gen Zers found Crenshaw and AOC’s feeds to contain relatable posts featuring Netflix, shoes, baseball teams, friends, food, and behind-the-scenes videos of their lives as politicians. 

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Andrea Colmenero, a legislative aide at the Colorado House of Representatives, said AOC is especially savvy at this.

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“AOC shares behind-the-scenes footage and just really gives her followers a deep dive into every stage of the political process,” Colmenero said. “It’s not only her policy work, but her own personal views and personal life, and I think it’s so important.” 

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Shannon McGregor, a communication professor at the University of Utah, said this behavior is critical in helping politicians connect with young people. 

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“We see someone like AOC using Instagram for not only some official stuff but also to talk about her cooking, her skincare routine, like really personal things,” McGregor said. “There is research that suggests that that makes people feel more connected to a politician and feel more favorable about them because then they feel like they know who they are and have some relationship with them.” 

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Chelsea Peters, another Gen Zer who is also an aide at the Colorado House of Representatives, finds Crenshaw’s posts relatable and interesting because of their shared military background. The single mother joined the military immediately after high school and loves how “relatable, interesting, and educational” Crenshaw’s posts are. 

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Hickenlooper and Gardner were criticized by the Gen Zers for their lack of original content, which is a key element in creating a relatable social media profile. Gardner often posts news segments from local Colorado news stations or national news outlets, but for Eastern Colorado rancher, Jonathan Roesch, that “doesn’t cut it.” 

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“Maybe he should make his own videos,” Roesch said after watching several of the clips on Gardner’s page. 

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Many Gen Zers shared the sentiment that the two Colorado politicians need to create more of their own content and use the Story feature on Instagram (like Crenshaw and AOC) to conduct polls, host question-and-answer sessions, or simply to video themselves in their day-to-day lives. Gardner and Hickenlooper both heavily rely on videos of themselves shot by someone else and have few, if any, self-filmed videos. 

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For Savannah Hart, a young mother who connects with clients through social media, she says it's these personal, handheld videos that ultimately help her gain followers, sell products, and build her brand as an associate market builder with Monat haircare. 

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Peters echoed Hart’s sentiment, saying that the staged backgrounds and impersonal videos make it even harder than it already is for young people to relate to politicians.

 

 

The final and perhaps the biggest critique of social media pages was their lack of authenticity.

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The Gen Zers could tell by captions using third-person language that the politician wasn’t running their own account, which bothered many of them. In a post on March 2, 2020, Gardner posted a picture on Instagram with the third-person caption, “Gardner Honors 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima…”

Roice Hanks, a Colorado native and University of Wyoming student, noted that it seemed like someone else was running Gardner’s Instagram and that bothered him without “that personal touch.” 

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“It kind of seems like a cover kind of, ‘cause he has to have it not necessarily cause wants to have it,” Hanks said. “But because of the age we’re in, he has an Instagram, I guess.” 

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The Gen Zers appreciated the first-person captions, the original content, and the clear and authentic perspectives of Crenshaw and AOC on Instagram. Hanks said that they didn’t have the “cookie-cutter, perfect politician Instagram” like Gardner and Hickenlooper, who were perceived as more politically correct and inauthentic by the Gen Zers. 

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“Like why are you trying to be fake or quote other people?” Hart said. “Be realistic, be true and honest, because everybody can see bullshit from a mile away, and if you can’t then you really need to, like, get off social media.” 

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Clapbacks, authentic posts, original content, and aesthetically-pleasing pages are all strategies that demonstrate an understanding of social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Politicians who maintain an active account simply to say that they have an account, not necessarily as part of a broader strategy to target young voters on the platforms, are missing the point. When it comes to social media, posts and tweets are about quality over quantity. It's one thing to constantly post a stream of average content and treat social media as somewhat of an afterthought, which may result in being ratioed or simply ignored, but it is another thing to post authentic, relevant content strategically and receive thousands of likes, create viral moments, and generate real engagement.

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As greater portions of the youngest generations reach voting age, it will become more of a necessity for politicians to not only maintain active accounts on social media, but to truly understand the nature of each platform (or hire staff members who do) by implementing legitimate strategies that take building a social media brand seriously, because that is ultimately what will help them connect with young Americans.

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