Donald Trump’s near-obsessive use of Twitter isn’t going to slow down one bit when he is sworn in as president. Indeed, future White House press secretary Sean Spicer has already promised that Trump will use Twitter as “a direct pipeline to the American people,” and will do so in a way that will be “really exciting.” That should send a chill down all of our spines. After all, Ford, General Motors, and Toyota all saw their stock crater when Trump attacked them on Twitter, and there have long been fears that Trump’s impulsive tweets carry a national security risk.
But veteran tech journalist Mike Elgan thinks that there’s a way to make lemonade out of this yuuuuge lemon. He has outlined a simple strategy to use Twitter to turn the tables on the Troll-in-Chief.
Like most of us in the reality-based world, Elgan knows that Trump was able to remain standing because he has “inoculated them against facts.” Most of Trump’s loyalists live in a bubble where “any report that benefits Trump is true (and) any report that does not benefit Trump is false.” However, he discovered that Twitter can be used to get inside that bubble.
Elgan discovered this more or less by accident on December 30, when Trump fired off this tweet.
Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2016
He was referring to the Kremlin’s decision not to expel American diplomats in response to American sanctions against Russia for its attempt to influence our elections.
Just seconds after seeing this crawl across his Mac, Elgan replied:
Trump sides with Russia against America. I knew it.
— Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan) December 30, 2016
By his reckoning, that tweet garnered 800,000 impressions and 24,000 engagements. That means over 800,000 people saw Elgan’s reply in either their Twitter timelines or in search results, and 24,000 people clicked on it. Additionally, in the 24 hours following his reply, he picked up 300 more followers on Twitter.
Elgan realized that most of those watching Trump’s Twitter feed not only read his tweets, but also read “the first dozen comments to those tweets”–usually those posted within the first ten seconds. In a colossal understatement, Elgan realized that this was “a rare window of opportunity” to reach Trump loyalists. How do you take advantage of this opportunity? Well, Elgan suggests following the Donald on Twitter, then downloading a Twitter streamer like TweetBot for Apple devices and Tweetdeck for PCs so you can see his tweets right away. Once Trump fires off a tweet, add a reply that “fact-checks or contextualizes what he is saying in a substantive and intelligent way.”
Inevitably, this will result in an ugly response from pro-Trump brownshirts. But Elgan thinks that it is well worth it.
“Yes, Trump’s Twitter account is a megaphone that enables him to spread self-serving misinformation to everyone who’s paying attention to him. But Trump’s Twitter account is also your megaphone to reach the same people. Twitter immediacy is a sword that cuts both ways.”
Speaking as someone who has some experience popping bubbles, this makes sense. In my two decades of watching the religious right, I’ve noticed that its core audience is as “inoculated against facts” as the Trump diehards. However, in the age of social media, it’s become harder and harder to keep the real world out. That’s probably why the religious right is getting boatraced in winning over younger generations. This is no different. Try as they may, even the most diehard Trump supporter can’t completely wall himself or herself off.
We may get a chance to test out Elgan’s strategy. Apparently the Trump campaign is encouraging Trump supporters to sign up for Twitter. Gerri McDaniel, a co-director of Trump’s South Carolina campaign, wants Trump voters to know that the president-elect is “going to go right to the core, and that’s to the people”–and for that reason, they need to get a Twitter account. They may be about to find out that they just made it a lot easier to reach Trump voters with a dose of reality.
(featured image: photo art courtesy InfoWars)
