Elizabeth Warren's Twitter Shows a Powerful Message, but not Enough Innovation | By Luke Miani

Elizabeth Warren is already making history as a major female presidential candidate, and her Twitter account is evidence of that. Warren has amassed 3.7 million followers on the platform and her campaign is very active. She Tweets at least 5 times per day and most tweets reach at least 4-5 thousand liked and one thousand retweets. Her campaign is one of hope and change, powered by her strong drive to make a difference. Warren was a college professor and consumer protections advocate before winning her senate seat in 2013, so she has plenty of experience and expertise uplifting and propelling average Americans to a better life. She is now taking this drive to her presidential campaign with enthusiasm

Warren demonstrates that her message is inspiring, especially towards young people, as her inspirational campaign messages often receive 10-20 thousand likes and thousands of retweets. Warren is positioning herself as a progressive politician who cares deeply about the average American who feels disenfranchised by the status quo- particularly women and people of color, as well as young Americans. Her messaging heavily focuses on intersectional supporters, uplifting people, and motivating supporters to get out and vote. Her content is primarily institutional, however. There are repeated calls to vote, links to caucus information, and links back to the Warren campaign website. She also posts a decent amount of photos/videos without a clear call to action; highlighting issues, showing conversations at campaign events, posting selfies with supporters and other motivational messages – but without overbearing donation requests or website links. This is an interesting approach, and it does leave some opportunity on the table, there is likely traffic that could be gained by having a call to action on these tweets. I, however, think she is likely going for reach and awareness with these tweets, many of which feature other notable politicians, to reach new individuals and expand her base. 

Despite her excellent engagement and positive messaging, the twitter account definitely plays by the rules and doesn’t employ particularly innovative strategies. There are some instances of semi-viral tweets that receive tens of thousands of likes and retweets because of their powerful message, but overall it’s standard campaign fare. This is likely part of why her campaign has slowed down as it struggles to capitalize on momentum. I do appreciate the positivity and hopeful nature, I think this stands in contrast to many politicians to try to harness fear or anger to gain support. I think if Warren wanted to expand her support she could employ some running thematic areas, her Twitter account has a lot of intersectional themes, which is great, but it can appear disjointed as she hops from one issue to another. I think she could break down the campaign by day into certain themes and issues she could highlight, and perhaps quote tweet replies from supporters to encourage engagement and promote active support. If she engaged with supporters on her Twitter page it would show a connected ‘woman of the people’ look and prove that you don’t have to go to a campaign event or donate to get Warren’s support and attention.

Elizabeth Warren is making a dent in this election with her hopeful yet powerful messages designed to inspire and motivate people using hope rather than hate. However her campaign is lacking some innovative tactics and outside-the-box thinking that would really help propel her candidacy