Hillary Clinton Uses Social Media to Bring Out Her Soft Side, Appeal to Younger Voters

Hillary Clinton is taking notes from her former boss President Barack Obama as she makes moves in her presidential campaign, using social media to soften her image to appeal to younger voters.

Clinton has held some of the top positions in national politics -- positions with which younger voters don't exactly identify. But through her crafted social media campaigns, Clinton's committing to a big turnaround -- and one that undoubtedly is trying to reach out to young voters through the media channels they use most.

Political campaigns saw the rise of the importance of social media especially during the 2008 and 2012 campaigns, when President Barack Obama dominated social media. His efforts seemed to pay off, too -- 49 percent of voters 18 to 24 turned out in the 2008 presidential election, a two point increase from 2004.

Now, it seems Clinton is taking a page out of Obama's book. Take, for example, Clinton's latest social media venture, Instagram. Instagram is a very different platform than Twitter or Facebook since it solely consists of photos -- making it a streamlined (and sometimes more difficult) platform to reach voters with.

But Clinton has taken social media and used it to her benefit -- her latest Instagram post features a handwritten letter thanking campaign donors. That shows a softer, more personal side to Clinton which can resonate with voters who might see her as "too stuffy" or "too political."  Add in the combination of a targeted audience which uses social media almost all day long and Clinton could have a slam dunk. 

As it stands, Clinton clearly dominates the social media game. On Instagram, Clinton has amassed over 160,000 followers since she hit the app three weeks ago. Even former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has been on Instagram for a little over six months, only has around 19,000 Instagram followers.

Even on Twitter, Clinton has nearly 4 million followers, while Bush has 218,000. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., does a little better than Bush with nearly 780,000 Twitter followers. 

Clinton's strategy seems to be working -- and if it can mobilize voters, Republicans could take a page out of her book to harness their own campaigns to make themselves more identifiable -- and more human -- to younger voters.