"Trump’s biggest obstacle is time. He wants the media spotlight back immediately or back by the 2022 midterms, and he can’t build a real social platform by then."
Said Nu Wexler, a communications consultant (who's worked for Twitter, Facebook and Democratic campaigns), quoted in "Trump is sliding toward online irrelevance. His new blog isn’t helping. The former president’s aides said his new online presence would ‘redefine the game.’ But his heavily promoted blog is seeing few visitors" (WaPo).
Even if Trump could build a "real social platform"...
To keep people interested, a new social network would also need to overcome more established social media sites’ “network effects” — the fact that so many users’ friends and family are on there already, locking them in — and “engineer all the tricks that the other platforms use to drive engagement and virality, which is no easy feat,” said Ashkan Soltani, the former chief technologist of the Federal Trade Commission.
“Those companies have had years and years of engineering and data and A-B testing of what evokes people writ large,” he added. “The way they are engineered to amplify divisive content; the way they use your friends and your friends’ activities to grab you; the way they use notifications to draw you back in — all those aspects aren’t going to be present in whatever thing Trump creates.”
The way they are engineered to amplify divisive content; the way they use your friends....
Yes, good thing Trump — who does know how to "evoke people" — can't cause a "real social platform" to come into existence for his personal/political use. It's bad enough that these generally available sites — the ones that all exclude Trump — are so vast and so highly functional. I would like to see Trump back on these places — Twitter, Facebook, etc. Even as he's "sliding toward online irrelevance," it's more worrisome that we're all sliding — greased by this social media (and the mainstream press) — into shallow recirculation of the divisive content and pointless attention grabbing.
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5 comments:
Bob Boyd writes:
We'll see.
Trump is kinda famous for doing things the experts said couldn't be done.
In 2016 all the expert consultants said Trump couldn't build a real campaign in time for the election.
In 2020 the experts said Trump couldn't organize a way to get a vaccine by the end of the year.
The Abraham Accord.
A meeting with Little Rocket Man.
To name a few examples.
Joe writes:
I have always believed that Trump's best option was to do a deal with Parler.
They took far too long to put their servers in order, but it was an established presence with a recognizable brand, especially among the more conservative-leaning crowd.
He could have opened an account there and promoted the hell out of it for a couple of percent of equity.
He would have an uncensored platform (part of the deal), and Parler would gain millions of new users. All of those new users would drive up advertising rates for Parler.
As a bonus for Trump, he would be sticking it to Twitter and Dorsey, as I believe many users would then abandon Twitter if there was a viable alternative.
I'm sure he considered that. Maybe he doesn't like being a part of a business that he's not at the top of, with his name on it.
Ray-so Ca writes:
Trump is benefiting from his lack of a social media presence. It’s rehabilitating the image the press created, and he sided, as an out of control, emotional, troll attacking any that disagreed with him on social media. Note on Trumps blog post what is not there, and how few posts he has done. With Trump right now, less is more. He is playing rope a dope with his opposition.
Trump on his online desk:
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/desk
Trump has been focused more on the direction of the gop party. Of helping the right people get elected or defeated. And in conservative media he statements are getting noticed. I see this as more inside baseball. Note Cheney is gone from her house leadership position.
And rumor is on July 4th Trump will be launching his own social media presence.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9580593/Donald-Trump-hopes-launch-social-media-platform-July-4.html
And he will soon be holding rallies again.
And more and more is coming out on what really happened in the 2020 election. What both besides have labeled “the big lie”. Time is on Trumps side.
Alexander writes:
"Trump has always been willing to drop ventures when they don't produce, so I wouldn't be surprised if he pivots on the social media thing. As for irrelevance, ironically the let's attempt to exile him may have the opposite effect than what they hope.
"If familiarity breeds contempt, then mystery is the mother of seduction. Trump constrained by a blog, press releases, and rallies may serve to take off the rough edge that we saw with Twitter, and even make him seem more respectable. This is especially true if the Biden admin continues to be a shit show and the economy tanks. A lot of people will forget about the mean tweets, and remember the sub-$2 gasoline and when they had a job..."
Tom T. writes:
"The fact that the media has to keep writing the same "Trump is fading away" article perhaps suggests that it isn't true."
Exactly.
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