Elizabeth Warren's Instagram

by Sarah Graver

For this assignment, I decided to look at Elizabeth Warren's Instagram page, which she has an impressive 2.2 million followers on. The only candidate who has more followers than her on the platform, unsurprisingly, is Bernie Sanders. Most of the other candidates still in the race have yet to surpass one million followers, which I do not believe to be a coincidence. Warren's Instagram showcases her reach and connection to younger, more progressive voters through being serious and direct, while also employing social media strategies and having a little bit of fun on her Instagram.

Her posts seem targeted most towards a collective group that values the structural change she is proposing, in addition to women and girls. A huge point that a handful of her posts make such as this one is that is it possible for a woman to become president, and this fact is bigger than just her as a candidate, as she shows through speaking to young girls about how they can become president one day. Outside of that, most of her captions use the pronoun 'we', which fosters a community within her supporters. Warren's posts don't often relate directly to one issue, but ones that do get a post dedicated to them include the legalization of marijuana, mass incarceration, and affordable housing. All three of these issues have roots in institutionalized racism, so perhaps she is trying to speak to people of color with those posts.

Most of the calls to action in the posts simply encourage people to donate (or 'chip in') to her campaign. Usually, she asks for $2, appealing to people who cannot afford to make big donations by acknowledging that no donation is too small. Another kind of call to action deals with telling voters in specific states to go caucus or vote, posted the day of, such as this post on the day of the Nevada caucuses. This leads me to say that this campaign mostly relies on institutional engagement, perhaps a reaction from her fundraising slowing down a few weeks ago.

The sentiment Warren's Instagram creates positions herself as a true grassroots, dependable, for-the-people leader. Many of her captions mention a "fight" that she, and we, are taking on together in the face of this election. Several posts use video clips of her delivering meaningful, powerful, inspiring messages, along with featuring community members that deal with issues that Warren wants to fix. 

There are several aspects to Warren's Instagram page that I see to be innovative. Her use of highlights is effective; they are all relevant, important, and there aren't so many that they make her profile look clogged. In her highlights, she has one dedicated to her dog Bailey, which points to how Warren isn't all serious when it comes to her social media. The videos dedicated to specific people and families are a super powerful tool for establishing emotional connections with voters who may sympathize with similar issues, and they come across as very genuine.

There is mostly a nice balance between photos, infographics, videos, and IGTV posts, but her feed sometimes appears clutter after debates, when she posts several videos from the debate that all appear the same due to their composition. Her branding and stylizing are consistent which is obviously super important. I think the only thing I would tweak on her page is to stop posting clips from the same event so close together because they can flood people's feeds and become an annoyance. At the time of writing this post, about a half-hour after the debate ended, there are nine clips from the debate posted on her Instagram. To me, this seems a bit excessive but I understand they are just trying to get as many views as possible in this critical time before Super Tuesday. Other than that, I think she could also benefit from some more creative calls to action outside of asking for donations, like asking people to comment about something important to them, sharing posts with a friend, or beyond that.