Hope you now know who won the US Presidential elections?

You know Barack Obama right? You know how he won his election using Social media effectively? Well we have another Social Media Candidate that just won the election. Donald J Trump trumped Hillary Rodham Clinton. What can we learn from this?

I am not a Donald Trump political candidate fan but I am a Donald Trump the business man fan. After the shock defeat of Hillary Clinton, I decided to do a mini post-mortem and share it with you. How did this guy win? How did all the polls miss it?

The Audience and The Problem: The American people were tired of unfulfilled promises. They wanted their jobs back, they wanted good paying jobs, they wanted cost-effective healthcare, they wanted their country and their destiny in their hands and a great future for their family and kids.

The two candidates had one goal which was to become President to solve the problems. Now to achieve that goal they had to convince the electorate that they knew what the issues were and had solutions to them. They created a strategy to achieve their goals but Trump was elected. Let’s see how he did it.

1.Solution system: Clinton used System/Status Quo centered strategy to create her solutions. She looked at what worked before and tried to improve on it. While [Tweet “Donald used Client-centered strategy.”] He looked at what the clients wanted, captured it in his message and then delivered. Because he sounded interested in the American people no one cared if he didn’t have experience. Both strategies were put to the test and we know the results. strategy to create her solutions. She looked at what worked before and tried to improve on it. While Donald used Client strategy. He looked at what the clients wanted, captured it in his message and then delivered. Because he sounded interested in the American people no one cared if he didn’t have experience. Both strategies were put to the test and we know the results.

Action Steps: Think of your clients first. Your clients should be the center of everything. Focus on delivering distinct solutions that they really want. Listen to them. Listen to what they are saying and what they are not saying.

2. Understand Your Audience: Clinton knew the audience, the American voter but didn’t understand them. [Tweet “It’s one thing to know them but another to understand them.”]You can only understand someone if you study them. Trump gave time to understanding. He employed analysts and other experts to psychoanalyze and tell him all they could about his audience, their interests, their pain, their fears, where they hang out, how they spend their time, even the type of TV shows they liked to see. He got all that he needed to develop the right strategy for the audience he needed to win.

Action Steps: Know, Study and Understand your audience. You cannot hit a target you do not know. You cannot speak to an audience you do not understand.

3. Build a community: Trump created a movement of people. People want to be part of a community, something larger and bigger than them. Trump provided this.

Action Steps: [Tweet “Communicate, connect, and engage with your audience. Build a community.”] Give them something larger to fight for. Make them feel that they are a part of the family.

4. Use the words of your audience: [Tweet “People connect with people who talk like them”], use similar words to them. Trump is not politically correct. He did too many wrong things but it was this ‘political incorrectness’ that got him this far. He cursed on air. He insulted people without looking back. Crazy right? But his audience does not think so. They do not care about all that. They think he was just awesome. He spoke to them in the words they understood. The words they use in their everyday conversation. This brought him closer to them and made them feel so much like him.

Action Points: Sell with your words. Every audience has its key words. When they look for solutions to their issues they look for certain words. Know those words and use them. Know the language of your target audience. Talk straight to them in the words they know and understand.

5. Emotional Marketing: While Clinton was selling the way she knew how – the political way, Trump was selling like a business man. [Tweet “He knows buying is an emotional decision”]. Clinton sold to their reasoning. Trump sold to their emotions. Fear and Pain were his major marketing points.

Sometimes it’s good to think outside the box: This was the only way Trump knew how to think because he was outside the system. Clinton was part of the system so she continued with her inside the box thinking.

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6. Be news worthy: With Trump, You don’t have to be correct to be in the news. Trump is the most controversial candidate I have ever seen and his ‘controversiality’ put him in the news all the time. He was awesome with capturing media attention. Turning every situation into a media sensation. Clinton played it too safe so she had to buy media attention with ads. Trump didn’t care about safe. He just said it as it was to him. He had more people talking about him than there were talking about Clinton even though not all they said was positive. Even the Clinton campaign slogan Love ‘Trumps’ Hate still mentions his name.

Action Point: I am not saying become like Trump and start telling stories that are not true as this could ruin your brand. All I am saying is find out what news worthy gist your audience would love and then give it to them. Be creative with your messages and content. Let it be full of value for your audience.

7. Social media: Trump used social media to air his views a lot and his fans just did the rest for him. It positioned him as a voice for a section of the populace no one was listening to. Finally, this group felt they had a messiah they could connect with.

Action Point: Use social media platforms strategically. [Tweet “Position yourself as a voice worth listening to.”] Be where your audience is and engage with them.

Thanks for reading. Do not ignore all we have talked about here. Implement it. Don’t be like Hillary. Would love to hear about your journey to success.

If you have issues with social media and how to use it effectively in business or you would like a social media audit and assessment, kindly let me know. Mail:TheOracle@vycade.com. You can get my new book: 33 Strategies of Social media here