Social Media Story Plan: Young People and Voting

Fewer than 1 in 5 young people cast their ballots for Super Tuesday in 2020.

There was a multitude of factors that played into this, but voter turnout in the United States has always been low, especially among young people. In 2016 the voter turnout for the presidential election sat at around 58%.

Voter turnout is at an all-time low and it is time to start treating voting as a responsibility. Getting people to vote starts in the months before November 3rd, so voter advocacy needs to start now.

I’d like to focus on Colorado voters. During the 2020 primary there was a record amount of voters who came out and voted. Some experts contribute the high turnout to the Hickenlooper and Romanoff race while others believe that independent voters helped bring up voting numbers. In Colorado, independent voters were not allowed to vote during primaries until 2018 which may have contributed to voter turnout.

Other social media platforms are doing their part in urging young people to vote by having users check their registration status and registering. I want to focus on Colorado ballots by providing information on amendments and propositions. I think it’s harder to get this kind of information on social media unless one is seeking it out intentionally.

So I want my story to be one about topics on the ballot this year. I would cover Amendment 76 — Citizenship Qualifications of Elector, Proposition 115 — Ban on Abortion Later in Pregnancy, Proposition 113 — National Popular Vote, and Proposition 118 — Paid Family and Medical Leave.

I think Instagram would be a great platform for this kind of advocacy. The produced story would be on Instagram uploaded to IGTV. IGTV makes it easier to share longer videos without clogging feeds. The video story would have information on these issues on the ballot and would lengthen out to include information on the long term impacts these issues could have.

The live element would come from Instagram as well because Instagram is one of the best known live platforms. On Instagram Live as well I could invite others to go live with me so collaboration would be easy to manage. The Live would act as a Q&A for people who still have questions on voting in Colorado this year.

Twitter would be great at helping identify Coloradan politicians and giving readers information on who their politicians are. Plus Twitter makes it easy to call out different public servants and plug their opinions on these different proposals this year. Twitter would also be used as a way to link Twitter readers back to Instagram where my main content would be located.

I think the best experimental platform for this situation would be TikTok. I am aiming at informing younger voters and these young voters are going to be found on TikTok. Also, TikTok makes it incredibly easy to edit videos and also share these videos with other platforms. TikTok’s hashtags and algorithm makes it easy to target those who live in Colorado, ensuring that my message gets to them.

My goal is to try and get young voters active and have them vote with confidence on issues that affect them directly. I would be happy with just educating a few new voters this year.