When Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris final week — and shared a hyperlink in her Instagram story selling voter registration — Vote.org noticed a 585% spike in exercise.
Based on the group, between 9 p.m. and midnight Japanese Time on Tuesday, September 10, following the presidential debate (and Swift’s fast-acting viral submit), 585% extra voters used the web site’s registration and verification instruments, in comparison with the identical time interval simply eight days prior.
It solidified what Vote.org already knew: That influencers and celebrities don’t simply have social clout — they’ve political energy, too.
A current survey from influencer advertising software program firm IZEA discovered that 87% of influencers plan to make use of their social media channels to encourage voter registration and participation this 12 months — and Vote.org desires to get in on the motion.
The group is partnering with Linktree — the digital host the place content material creators hold all of their essential URLs (normally within the “bio” part of their profiles) — to launch a star-powered voter registration marketing campaign in the present day: Nationwide Voter Registration Day.
Their key gamers? Musicians and athletes like Olivia Rodrigo, Maggie Rogers, Stephen Curry, and Tara and Hunter Davis Woodhall. Content material creators are additionally getting in on the motion, together with Hank Inexperienced, Bella Poarch, Hannah Chody, Michael Kosta, Connor Franta, and Erika Alexander.
All of them will flip their Linktree profiles into voter registration hubs.
“These influential figures are utilizing their Most worthy on-line actual property — their link-in-bio — to encourage their followers to test their voter registration standing forward of the November U.S. election,” a press launch from Linktree mentioned.
“The place you would possibly usually discover your favourite musician’s tour web page, athlete’s merch web site, or life-style creator’s store hyperlink, guests shall be redirected to a voter registration web page powered by Linktree and Vote.org, making it simple for U.S. voters to confirm or replace their registration.”
To do that, influencers and celebrities can add an easy voter registration hyperlink to their bio, or make the most of Linktree’s redirect software, which might ship any customer that clicks on their profile on to a voter registration web page as an alternative.
Many may even change their Linktree show to function a voter registration banner, whereas others shall be featured as a part of an enormous advertising marketing campaign throughout social media — and on billboards in Occasions Sq. — to advertise voter registration and participation.
Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey mentioned that this strategy is vital to capturing individuals’s consideration “in an age of accelerating fragmentation and lowering consideration spans on-line.”
“By partnering with Linktree, voters who’re naturally curious about any given creator’s content material shall be much more more likely to encounter voter registration info by way of the Linktree voter registration hub linked in that creator’s bio,” Hailey mentioned in a press release.
“That is the precise form of partnership that has led Vote.org to assist register younger voters at unprecedented charges this election cycle — and partnering with Linktree will solely assist us attain increasingly more younger voters on Nationwide Voter Registration Day.”
For the partnering creators, it’s a simple alternative to construct on the values they’ve already established amongst their fan communities.
Rodrigo, for instance, impressed her swath of younger feminine followers to get out the vote at a sold-out live performance in Los Angeles final month.
Inexperienced, then again, has lengthy been advocating for voter registration. For years, he’s been educating younger viewers easy methods to vote in all 50 states by way of a mission along with his digital schooling firm, Complexly.
The truth is, previous to this Nationwide Voter Registration Day marketing campaign, Inexperienced posted to X (previously Twitter) to champion Vote.org.
“Vote.org kicks ass and has every part you want in a single place to ensure you’re registered, register in the event you aren’t, discover out in the event you can vote by mail, discover your polling place, and so on,” he wrote. “Multi function non-partisan place!!!”
All of this in thoughts, you don’t must have tens of millions of followers to spice up civic engagement this fall. Any Linktree consumer can add a voter registration hyperlink or banner to their profile. In the meantime, paid Linktree subscribers can use the redirect software to ship their viewers on to a voter registration web page.
Lara Cohen — Linktree’s senior vp of selling, partnerships, and enterprise growth — mentioned this partnership with Vote.org permits high-profile individuals — and on a regular basis residents — to “rally their communities in ensuring their voices are heard on this essential U.S. election.”
“With 50+ million of probably the most highly effective voices on the web, Linktree exists to empower creators to personal their audiences, and drive their followers to the issues they care about most,” Cohen mentioned.
“For therefore many in our group that’s about trying to make use of their platform to drive social affect and good.”
Whereas it’s unclear how impactful the mission shall be on voter registration numbers, the thought is that Linktree customers can strategy civic engagement with out intimidation.
Cohen added, “We’re proud to simplify the voter registration course of and produce it to the forefront of their digital areas.”
Header photographs courtesy of Keith Allison (CC BY-SA 2.0), Linktree, and Justin Higuchi (CC BY 2.0)
