#TeamWarren Fights back by: Maria Briquet

Elizabeth Warren’s Instagram campaign defines as a “people-powered grassroots movement”. The campaign is built around the idea of fighting back. In most of her posts, Warren appears very approachable and human-like. She even published an Instagram live several weeks ago drinking a beer to showcase how ‘down to earth” the candidate is.

The campaign encourages community engagement and seeks an emotional connection between Warren and her followers by posting sentimental stories on the platform. The most persuasive technique used in the campaign is covering the issues that affect some of her supporters, posting concrete examples and connecting these to her presidential promises and emphasizes their importance. For instance,  the importance of universal health care, the housing crisis, protecting families’ economy, and many others. The campaign also uses celebrities, like John Legend, to increase popularity and social media outreach.

The campaign focuses on people who are “in a fight”. This involves everyone who’s struggling or has struggled and wants to speak up for themselves. Minorities are the campaign’s main target audience. In the account, it is repeated continuously how her policies will improve the injustices that have affected these groups. An example of this is the candidate's take on legalizing Marihuana and how this issue has affected black and Latino communities. Moreover, the candidate also seeks to represent women and intends to do this with her hashtag #WomenWithWarren. The campaign refers to female empowerment and the importance of being the first female president.
On another note, the campaign mentions President Trump in several posts and emphasizes his poor political choices and the terror he evokes (that's why she's fearlessly fighting back). In this way, the campaign’s target is also people who're against Trump’s ideals and share Warren’s opinions towards him.
The campaign has a major call to action presence. A good number of posts encourage followers to donate money to the campaign through the link in the bio. She maintains her donation number at $2. If you click the candidate’s link on the bio it leads you to a page where you can donate, volunteer and/or get involved with the campaign. The link also has a stay in touch section where you can add your contact information to stay updated with the campaign.
The campaign’s goals based on the Instagram account are simple: to get more people to believe in her as a presidential figure and to raise more money for the campaign. The campaign encourages supporters to follow instructions. They’re asked to listen to her ideas, learn more about them on her website and, are asked to donate to the campaign if it speaks to them. The campaign doesn't encourage creative actions from supporters, however, it does mention personal stories shared with the candidate.
Warren’s campaign focuses on leadership. As mentioned above, her take on the campaign is to fight back and not settle. To make everyone a fighter. She tries to build a community, the #TeamWarren. A community that’s not afraid to speak up and won’t settle for a mediocre government. She uses her life story to build the profile of a strong female fighter. By self-exceeding and becoming a senator regardless of her situation, Warren tries to appeal to a community that wants to achieve greatness even though they find themselves in challenging situations at the moment. Based on the comments on her pictures, you can see this technique has been successful and has built a large community of followers who feel identified with her story and political ideals.
The campaign doesn’t use any innovative strategies and sticks to the basic tools the platform has to offer. I think the campaign could improve by encouraging her followers to engage in more creative ways, as her Instagram engagement rates have been decreasing the past months.