NEW EPISODE: Leveraging Social Media for Politics with Gabriella Zutrau, Former Digital Strategy Advisor for Zohran Mamdani
Lessons learned from the Zohran Mamdani campaign and a viral puppy page converge in this conversation on the future of political strategy in the age of social media.
SUMMARY
On this episode of Create for Change, we’re joined by Gabriella Zutrau, a digital strategy advisor, organic social media expert, and content creator focused on leveraging social media engagement’s potential for real-world impact.
Gabriella shares her takeaways from building out the digital operations for Zohran Mamdani’s campaign — which included a social media chatbot infrastructure that helped turn followers’ online energy into offline action, and a trial reels program that brought in over half a million followers during New York’s Democratic mayoral primary.
Gabriella walks us through her digital strategy career journey, gives us her thoughts on what makes a good political campaign, and shares the unexpected testing ground that helps her hone her craft: her dog’s Instagram account.
HIGHLIGHTS
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE ZOHRAN MAMDANI CAMPAIGN: Gabriella emphasizes that the success of the Zohran Mamdani campaign was a combination of investment in digital communications and on-the-ground outreach, an unapologetic Democratic Socialist platform, and a “generational talent” of a communicator who tied it all together, and trusted creative professionals to experiment. She urges strategists to remember that social media amplifies everything about a candidate, and when it comes to elections, presentation means nothing without policy.
THE FUTURE OF POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS IS DIGITAL-FIRST: Gabriella speaks on the importance of campaigns investing money, time, and energy into digital communications strategies. She underscores the need for the consulting class to turn away from broadcast advertising and lean into social media — where most Americans in the present-day get their news. She also calls on campaigns, organizations, and the Democratic Party as a whole to shift their paid media spending into organic social operations and creator engagement.
A PERSONAL PUPPY PAGE AS A TACTICS LAB: Out of all the work she’s done over the years, nothing has taught Gabriella more about digital strategy than running her dog’s social media page, @ednatherunt. Through Edna’s page, Gabriella has the freedom to experiment, be creative, and test potential social media strategies for her clients. She suggests that anyone who wants to master social media maintains a personal social media practice to stay in touch with the latest trends, platform updates, and what is and isn’t working online.