Tweet Like a Woman

Trump has deciphered the key for successful social media campaign – which is active and constant interaction with public. This approach has definitely brought him success during the campaigns’ social media battle, especially in Twitter sphere. I argue that this has been made possible only because of the ubiquitous double standards put on Hillary: while Trump has been strolling through this presidential election with characteristics of Teflon, she's been more like a rusty pan on which even the tiniest accusation sticks.

This unfair treatment (or equal treatment of unequal candidates?) has led both candidates to employ very different media strategies: While one of them has been able to gamble with carelessness and freestyle, the other has shown constraint and attentiveness in all the departments of campaign communication.

With a mother in the Oval Office, we may finally catch up to the rest of the world on paid leave. https://t.co/e5UH9t0DvO

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 29, 2016

Why so wary?

Ridiculous, and often gender-based, treatment of both candidates in the media manifested itself recently before the first presidential debate, when candidates were given suggestions on how to ace the debate.

Summary of double standards by Seth Meyer

Basically, as a woman, Hillary was obliged to “sell her presidency” by ticking all the presidential requirement boxes, whereas Trump just had to stop lying and scale down the racism.

Therefore, it makes sense that Hillary and her team have adhered to a much more controlled and conventional communication strategy - which concomitantly has also extended to the realm Twitter.

Gendered tweets 

Recent research by Lee & Lim (2016) has illustrated this contrast between Trump and Hillary’s approaches to campaign tweets and found gender to be determinant of those differences.

Hillary's tweets were clearly affected by the unjust expectations from public and the media to find just the right balance between the masculinity and femininity. This balancing act was resolved by  emphasizing her masculine traits in concert with her strong stances on feminine issues. To nobody's surprise, no such dilemma - to find right gendered balance - was found from Trump tweets.


The necessity to comply with all the demands has definitely made Clinton's interactions with public less interactive compared to that of Donald’s: she has securely stuck with one-way communication, and, unlike him, hasn’t relied on unknown citizens’ tweets. Hillary’s tweets concentrated predominantly on her own opinions about public and social issues, while circa 40% of Trump’s tweets were other’s supportive quotes and endorsements.

Therefore, high expectations and intense scrutiny has constrained Hillary to be more rigid and conventional when utilizing social media. On the other hand, Trump has enjoyed the liberty to use social media the way it was intended - to interact with people.

"@Lewenskimo: Your opponent has run out of ideas, now resorts to personal attacks on you. Every Amercan knows, you represent HOPE!!"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2016