[jchrisa]

I ran this game on the local political establishment in 2015, and it was scary effective. I assume they are more resilient today, but at the time entry-level social media advertising techniques were able to have a massive influence on politician's perceptions of their constituents's concerns. I wasn't surprised at all by the impact social advertising ended up having in the 2016 election.

[A4ET8a8uTh0]

That is super interesting to me. Can you provide any additional details? Was it age range specificity ( "40-45 consider you weak on X" )?

[fennecfoxen]

Not the poster, but

When I was at $STARTUP we had ads on Instagram and what have you. I am told we targeted a few at the group which was essentially [$STARTUP employees and family]. Unlike our real targets ($N million per year income - it’s a boutique investment product), it was not very expensive, and there were few of us, and it left us more aware of how the company was positioning itself.

This was a small company. Targeting this group is remarkably narrow.

Imagine that your senator can be targeted and goes online and sees ads of your choosing… I don’t know, imagine just a tremendous number of ads addressing $STATE residents and offering help with the record high price of heating oil (then touting insulation, all year payment plans, new boilers, anything).

Will he think people are worried about the price of oil? Could that affect his input on some climate bill?

And that is without planting or promoting anything that even looks like politics or citizens actively complaining.