COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS: CASE STUDY OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES DONALD TRUMP AND HILLARY CLINTON

In the past ten years, with a rapid development of the Internet and digital technology in general, new trends have developed in marketing communication of all types of industries and in political marketing communication as well. The Internet, and social networks in particular, have become the integral part of integrated political marketing communication and consequently are in the function of branding a political party or a political candidate. The implementation of social networks in political campaigns has enabled direct feedback from a potential voter. Based on this fact, communication during a political campaign can be developed in line with desires and preferences of the electorate. Key messages of a political campaign find a direct way to the electorate through social networks as the offer a possibility of selecting target groups towards which all promotional activities are directed. Additionally, social networks make an ideal channel for content marketing whose primary goal is to attract new voters. Precisely the new voters are the decisive factor in making the decision who to vote for in the elections. The fundamental goal of this research is to establish how the candidates in the US Presidential Elections used social networks in their campaigns and to determine the differentiation in marketing communication strategy on social networks of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded how Donald Trump used social networks Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to motivate his target group as well as new voters to vote in the election and consequently secure his victory. Despite the boycott of all major mainstream media, Donald Trump managed to convey the key messages of his presidential campaign to the citizens of the US using unconventional marketing strategy, and thus securing majority electoral vote and winning the US presidential election 2016.