The Joe Biden campaign is taking over a teen supporter’s popular Instagram account. The teen built a huge following over their summer break.
Formerly a fan account, @VoteJoe will now serve as the campaign’s primary point of grassroots outreach on Instagram. It will be supplementing Biden’s personal account.
It began as @TeamJoeBiden, which launched earlier this year by a 15-year-old supporter from California. The young supporter spent their summer creating content for this.
It quickly grew to over 85,000 followers. Earlier this year, the campaign contacted the owner of the account asking if they could acquire it.
They asked if they could switch it over as an official campaign channel. Now, its former owner will be volunteering for the campaign.
They will continue to make content after school alongside Biden’s Social Media and Audience Development team.
As of publication, @VoteJoe now has over 93,000 followers.
Before joining the campaign, it largely posted quasi-official content like clips from Billie Eilish’s DNC appearance. It had information-based Instagram feed galleries that could easily be mistaken for official campaign messaging.
The campaign says it now plans to use the IG account to boost user-generated content from Biden supporters. That’s whether it’s videos or screenshots of tweets.
It is also planning IG stories that mirror the PowerPoint-style activism. This has grown popular on Instagram over the last few months.
What they’ve seen blowing up in places both in and outside of politics is a focus on shareable content. This was a statement from Sarah J. Galvez, director of social and audience development for the Joe Biden campaign.
She also said that previous to this, they’d have these conversations with friends, colleagues, and family in person. But due to COVID 19, people are having these political conversations online.
Teen’s IG will be Used for Joe Biden’s Online Organizing
Campaigns have started to harness organic online support. Progressives like Bernie Sanders and Sen. Ed Markey launched TikTok accounts earlier this year. This allowed supporters to submit videos to be posted on the official channel.
Staff from the Markey campaign frequently interacted with their supporters. The memes they created throughout his 2020 primary, run against Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA).
Over the past week, the Joe Biden campaign has ramped up its online organizing efforts. The campaign announced that it was launching official designs in Animal Crossing: New Horizons last Tuesday.
These are for voters looking to put virtual yard signs in front of their island homes to show their support. The campaign also partnered up with the celebrity video platform Cameo.
This is part of its broader online fundraising efforts. In July, the Joe Biden team partnered with Hollywood celebrities for official Instagram Live chats. These were chats with campaign officials and supporters.
Meanwhile, a commentary says, former vice president Biden needs to get his media act together. And it said he needs to do it fast.
After Labor Day, there’s little or no room anymore for media mistakes or a fuzzy media focus, said the commentary.
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