Since the announcement of Bernie Sanders’ presidential candidacy in May, the mainstream media continues to overlook him. For the millennial generation, Sanders’ social media presence proves he is a candidate worthy of their votes.
He’s against corporate funding in politics. He’s ready to overturn the ruling on Citizens United v. FEC. He’s strictly grassroots.
For Sanders, there is a growing buzz of support through social media. After his news conference on May 3, his total number of followers spiked to 72,000 in three days to a likely reach of 1,708,746 people on both Facebook and Twitter.
That number now rests at about 2,403,890 and rising. His Facebook posts receive tens of thousands of shares and likes alone.
These numbers do not include the support from Reddit users, where he is often featured on the website’s home page. The support of Tumblr bloggers, where one can search his tag to see countless blogs and posts heading “Bernie Sanders for President 2016,” are also unaccounted for.
He also posted a photo advocating to make Election Day a national holiday. The photo was superimposed over a stock photo of ballot boxes. With no searchable text, the post received nearly 122,000 likes and shares. While Clinton’s video announcing her candidacy, expertly manufactured so that it is easy to find, received about 120,000 likes and shares.
He is not social media savvy in the slightest. Not following the expert’s design of social media success, he shares quotes as photos, posts long-winded statuses and doesn’t use keywords to be more searchable. Despite all this, he attracts this vast following.
Coming into his presidential campaign, Sanders was aware that he would be “outspent” by his mainstream competitors, Clinton and Bush. However, he remains optimistic that he can raise enough money to run a “winning campaign.”
The donations to his campaign come straight from the public. When contributing a donation, his site includes in its contribution terms that all funds are from your personal account and not provided by another person, entity or through any business credit card.
His campaign expects to have $10 million available from over 200,000 contributors and plans to raise $50 million in total, half of what Clinton’s campaign expects to raise.
But, why is this self-proclaimed socialist so popular among the people and not so among main media sources? Simple: he’s authentic. He writes most of his own content.
As a former journalist, writing comes naturally. He writes topically; about the increasing gap between the upper class and the ever-growing lower class, the need for jobs to remain domestic and making expensive amenities, like higher education and healthcare, free for all citizens.
“I’m not some kind of tech nerd, I really am not,” Sanders told the New York Times. “But I have always believed in communication and not just photo ops and stuff, but educating people and communicating with people about the real work that we’re doing.”
The public loves his fight to bring politics back to the people. Through his authenticity and knowledge of government, he has become a popular choice among the public. Through social media, they continue to show their support, even if the mainstream media chooses the flashier candidates.