According to Rutgers University, social media can affect public perception of candidates and political opinions in many ways. In the 2024 election, social media stands as a major form of campaigning for all candidates. The use of social media allows for both parties to reach a younger voting audience, further increasing votes for both candidates.

The Harris campaign utilizes the social media app TikTok to reach young voters. Studies from the Pew Research Center convey 56% of adults between ages 18-34 claim to use the app. After Joe Biden’s announcement of dropping out of the presidential race, Kamala Harris debuted her official TIkTok account and used current trends and incorporated relatable humor to further attract voter attention. Logically, the Harris campaign attracts their younger intended audience by meeting them where they already are.

On the flip side, Donald Trump has a somewhat different way of campaigning. With his background in business, Trump has experience in marketing strategies such as the “Big-seed” method. Unlike Harris’ method of campaigning, Trump seeds his message in an audience that has a pre-existing opinion favoring a topic, which differs from the epidemic form of campaigning. Similarly, Trump utilizes the social platform X to campaign over social media and proved to be efficient in the 2020 election. According to Harvard Business Review, after news and broadcast networks cover a post or post made by Trump, controversial or not, they effectively diverted more attention to him by seeding the post to millions of more people. After this coverage, Trump’s following on the social platform X almost doubled and increased overall effectiveness of his campaign. 

As social media usage continues to grow, it becomes a primary source of information for most voting age adults. The Pew Research Center conducted a study which shows that 54% of adults get their news from social media, and this just goes to show the power that social media can have among people, and candidates recognize this. 

Despite Trump’s campaign proving to be effective in the 2020 election, the social platform X is becoming outdated. As Elon Musk takes over the social media platform X, usage declined by 23% during the first month of Musk ownership. I firmly believe that this needs to change. If Trump wants to win this upcoming election, he needs to update this outdated form of campaigning as he is preaching a message to people who already side with him.

In contrast, I believe Harris’ use of TIkTok will help her greatly, given that her audience tends to be younger. Statistically younger people are less likely to vote, which gives her a larger group of people to potentially win over. This approach will allow for her to grow her following by focusing on a wide intended audience, with possibly differing political views. Harris knows what her audience wants to see, and she does not fail to meet audience expectations.

Overall, I believe this election will come down to who can capture America’s attention on a larger scale. Both candidates have similar methods, but I believe the Harris campaign will prove to be more successful in the end. Although, the election isn’t over, and the Trump campaign still has time to win over voter attention.