Rivalries: Bulldogs, Sharks and Trump

September’s standout social content was about rivalries. At the month’s end, after generating huge socmed support, two battler teams— the Sharks and the Bulldogs— both pulled their bandwagons to victory.

On a global scale, however, another rivalry is trumping all others: The Donald versus Hillary.

If you’ve even glanced at social media in the last year, you’ll have seen Donald Trump staring back at you. Like a dumpster fire across the Pacific, he casts a toxic cloud over social feeds, even in countries far away. In September, the first presidential debate fanned the flames and the smoke got even thicker.

But likening the Trump phenomenon to a fire is misleading. Trump is a celebrity and—above all—brand. And that brand is so hot right now, especially on social.

Just how hot is Donald? Let’s break it down.

Tweeting Trump

Trump’s presence made this US election’s first presidential debate the most tweeted debate in history.

Trump’s followers: 11.9 Million

Trump’s official account is quickly approaching 12 million twitter followers—around 30% more than Hillary Clinton (9.2 million).

In September, Trump gained almost 700,000 new followers. 100,000 of those clicked follow in the two days after the debate.

Facebooking Trump

Trump’s verified Facebook Page likes: 10.9 million times.

Trump’s verified Facebook Page is closing in on 11 million fans. It gained 500,000 in September alone. He’s averaging more than 20,000 new Page likes every day.

In the 2 days following the Presidential debate, he picked up almost 80,000 followers.

This dwarfs Clinton’s Facebook fan base of 6.5 million.

Australian connection

Of all the countries in the world, Australia has the 8^th most Trump fans on Facebook (107,767). Australia ranks 53^rd for overall population, so we’ve got a relatively high proportion of Trump followers.

Aussie brands with a strong demographic crossover could use this to their advantage… but would any dare?

Losing can be a win on social

By most rational measures, Hillary won the debate.

Despite being trounced, Trump still dominated on social media.

Mentions in the twittersphere were heavily slanted: Trump received 62% compared to Clinton’s 38%. Trump monopolised the mentions on Facebook even more, with 79%.

The debate’s top three tweeted moments also stemmed from Trump’s comments:

1    his claim to have a better temperament than Clinton

2    his statement that police stop-and-frisks don’t target minorities

3    his plans for defeating ISIS

Of course, not all of the chatter is positive. Trump’s fine with that.

You know that old adage that no publicity is bad publicity? Trump agrees. The Trump brand has shown an insatiable hunger for all publicity, whatever the flavour. Feeding that appetite worked in the primaries. Polls indicate its working now too.

Takeaways

As any social media marketer knows, the key to killer content is serving your audience what they want. Entertain ‘em and engage ‘em. On that front, Trump is a rolling, trolling success.

The Trump brand is social media content. Everything from the campaign seems designed to be shared: whether for purposes of mockery, shuddery, or appreciation. News services and other social media users feed Trump’s hunger and fuel that brand fire every time they quote his odd statements, shudder at his campaign and make fun of him, his mannerisms, his hair and his children.

After his team won the AFL and Trump lost the debate, the Bulldogs captain got international political aspirations.

But Bob’s quip was wishful thinking.

Weeks out from the election, Trump is still dominating social media. The constant exposure brings supporters out of the woodwork in much the same way as a footy-battler success story.

Trump’s social media strategy will be hard for anyone to emulate. Would anybody dare?

Actually, some elements of this performance are reminiscent of Trump’s Freedom Girls. Maybe Collingwood could give it a tilt.