Digital Social Hour - Why TikTok Dominated 2024 Campaigns | Alex Bruesewitz DSH #1132

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Discover how TikTok became the game-changer in the 2024 campaigns 🎯 and why it dominated the digital landscape! This episode of Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly dives deep into the world of politics, social media influence, and campaign strategies with Alex, Trump’s adviser and CEO of HEX Strategies. 🚀 Packed with valuable insights, we explore TikTok’s unmatched reach, controversies surrounding other platforms like Instagram, and how it all shaped the election’s momentum. 📱💬 From TikTok's billion-strong views to the surprising narratives spun by competitors, Alex shares insider stories, bold opinions, and behind-the-scenes details you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're curious about campaign tactics, the future of social media, or just love a good debate, this episode has it all. 👏🔥 Don't miss out—watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🎙️✨ Join the conversation and let us know your thoughts below! ⬇️ #tiktokadsstrategy #socialmediamarketing #howtoruntiktokads #donaldtrump #tiktokadsmanager CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:29 - Alex Bruesewitz Insights 05:02 - Prolon Benefits 06:45 - DEI Strategies 07:58 - Instagram Reels Tips 09:04 - TikTok Trends 10:55 - Zuck and Biden Controversy 12:42 - Alex's Health Journey 14:42 - Closing Remarks APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Alex Bruesewitz  https://www.instagram.com/alexbruesewitz SPONSORS: Prolon: http://prolonlife.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/

Looking for the ultimate online casino experience? Step into the BetMGM Casino app, where every deal, spin and goal brings Las Vegas excitement into the palm of your hand. Take your seat at Premium Blackjack Pro, where strategy meets top-tier gameplay. Hit the ice with Gretzky Goal Lucky Tap, inspired by the great one himself. Or play the dazzling MGM Grand Emerald Nights, a slot experience that captures the magic of MGM. With so many games, it's time to make your move. Download the app and visit BetMGM Ontario today to experience the next level of gaming. Visit betmgm.com for terms and conditions, 19 plus to wager, Ontario only.

Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact CONNECTS ONTARIO at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Get ready for Las Vegas style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for. When you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette with our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games and signature Bet MGM service, there is no better

way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to you than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to Wager Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

BedMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I'm in favour of TikTok. TikTok was a great platform for us in this campaign cycle. I don't necessarily believe the narratives being spun up about the dangers of it, if you will. Because I know how the city works. The TikTok is a threat narrative came out just two weeks after two weeks before Instagram, Instagram, Instagram Alright, guys, we got Alex here, advisor to President Trump and CEO of Xstrategies. Thanks for hopping on, man.

We're in DC. Hey, thanks for having me on, man. It's great to be with you. Is this home for you? It's not home, fortunately. Second home. Yes, you could call it that. But yeah, I live in Palm Beach, Florida now and I've been down there for about five years.

I love it, man. You've had a busy four years, this campaign. Yeah, actually a busy eight years, but I mean, the four years have been pretty crazy, but I feel like they kind of flew by in a way. Yeah, this one felt like there was a lot of momentum the whole way through. 100%, 100%. I think this was the first time in decades that the American people got to choose between two presidents running against each other that they both lived under.

So the decision was very simple. Was life better under Donald Trump or under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? And everybody with a functioning brain said it was better under Donald Trump and that's why he's back. I mean, you saw it with the results. The left would make these nuanced debates of random stuff, but overall, was your life better or not? Yeah.

And they also have terrible salespeople. The Democrats who's selling their vision, have you ever looked at these people? I mean, have you ever looked at Tim Walls, for example, and thought, wow, that guy's inspiring? It's not me. I don't get the inspirational feel from Tim Walls. I feel like I probably wouldn't leave.

If I had kids, I wouldn't leave my kids with Tim Walls. That's my personal feeling. But their people are very bizarre. And I talked about this probably wouldn't leave, if I had kids, I wouldn't leave my kids with Tim Walz. That's my personal feeling. But their people are very bizarre. And I talked about this a couple of days ago that their candidate quality is probably the worst it's ever been. And I look at their bench and who's their talent. I don't think they have any talent.

They thought AOC was going to be their rising star. She's totally fizzled out. She has no sway the way she used to. Obama has almost no poll. We saw that he was out there every day campaigning against Trump and he did absolutely nothing to help Kamala. Maybe even hurt Kamala because he went and lectured black men and said, you have to vote for Kamala because she's black.

He's totally obsolete. I look at the Democrat Party right now, they have no talent. And we have a lot of talent. I think your next guest after me, she's very talented too. Exactly. And you even got Newsom struggling. His leadership is being questioned, especially with how

we handle the fire situation, right? Yeah. And the idea that Newsom was ever a contender to begin with is beyond me. I love California. I love Los Angeles. I spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. Even after the campaign, I spent like 40 days straight in LA.

I love it out there. It's the most beautiful place, maybe even in our entire country. But the way that state's been run under Newsom is a travesty. They are so blessed with natural resources, natural beauty, the ocean. And they totally took that state and ran to the ground with insane taxes, insane woke policies. They spent billions of dollars building homeless shelters and housing, and homelessness in California has only gotten worse. These people are totally incompetent. And this fire has just put that on national display. I think it's the

final straw for a lot of people. I think a lot of people are going to move out. I mean, no water and fire hydrants. How can that be? Yeah, it's it blows my mind. It's just sheer incompetence. You know, something that I question is, you know, there's something called the Pacific Ocean at your doorstep. And so when you have these reporters and you have these politicians saying that California is out of water, and then you look out your window and there's the most beautiful ocean you'll ever see, there's been no creativity or ingenuity in how to desalinate the water that's in the Pacific and build reserves. It blows my mind that we are in such a blessed country and we have such

blessed resources and our politicians don't know how to use them. So I'm hopeful that we can figure out how we can you know better take care of California. Absolutely. I mean if I'm paying that 15% state tax I want the best government stuff at my disposal. And you know on your way you going to make a lot more money and you're going to be paying a lot more in taxes. But some people, I think 30% in some situations are even higher. So it's terrible how that state's been managed and run. And when all of these people lose their homes in this fire and they pay all of these taxes,

and then the taxes, what do they go for it? And then you see the fire chief in LA County, no experience. Looking for the ultimate online casino experience? Step into the BetMGM Casino app, where every deal, spin and goal brings Las Vegas excitement into the palm of your hand. Take your seat at Premium Blackjack Pro, where strategy meets top-tier gameplay. Hit the ice with Gretzky Goal Lucky Tap, inspired by the great one himself,

or play the dazzling MGM Grand Emerald Nights, a slot experience that captures the magic of MGM. With so many games, it's time to make your move. Download the app and visit BetMGM Ontario today to experience the next level of gaming. Visit betmgm.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Get ready for Las Vegas style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for. When you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette, with our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games, and signature BetMGM service, there is no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to you than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM and GameSense

remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. It's in combating fire. If starting the new year off with a fast feels

a little daunting, you're not alone. Shout out to today's sponsor Prolon. They're an entire community of individuals that want you to make meaningful differences in health. And it makes fasting so powerful because you have a group of people around you. I'm joining their January Fasting Challenge, which is a coach led program to set you up

for fasting success. It's a five day program. It's filled with snacks, soups and beverages that are designed to keep your body in a fasting state with no guesswork or planning required. Got the boxes laid out right here so you guys can check it out. It's also great for so many things.

It enhances your skin, it enhances fat loss, and it improves your energy. All their meals are prepackaged. Like I said, no guesswork. And it's perfect for after the holiday season where you stocked up on a lot of heavy meals. If you're ready to make 2025 your healthiest year yet, you can order your Prolon five-day kit

at prolon.com slash DSH and join in on their fasting challenge today. New groups start every Sunday in January. Plus, Prolon is offering digital social hour listeners 15% off their 5-day program. When you go to Prolon.com slash DSH, that's Prolon.com slash DSH. But she's like the first lesbian to ever hold the position. so she gets paid $800,000 a year as like a

You know a token but that's how she makes something along those lines It's insane and she does such a terrible job combating fire. That's not so I think a lot of people in California are waking up and This is certainly the final blow to whatever political ambition Kevin Newsom has. I don't think he recovers from this. Yeah. And I think that might've been the final straw for DEI too. You had Elon on X saying DEI means die. I mean, lives were lost, right? And Don Jr's been saying that for a long time as well. And I think it needs to go. I think it was a failed experiment. This whole presidential administration was a failed DEI experiment, from having the first

dementia patient as president to picking Kamala Harris simply due to her ethnicity rather than credentials to Mayor Pete, the worst transportation secretary in the history of the world. He only got that job because of his sexual orientation. And look what happened under him. He was touting his successes as transportation secretary, but he oversaw the East Palestine train disaster. He oversaw the cargo ship crisis that we couldn't even get our shipments in.

He oversaw the worst airports in the history of the, we have the worst airports in the entire world and that's on Mayor Pete's back. So. And what is that based off wait times or? Wait times, cancellations. It's insane what Mayor Pete's done as transportation secretary, but again, another DEI hire.

Yeah, I remember my flights were delayed for probably two years straight. I was like, all right, I'm just gonna show up late at this point, cause it's not on time anymore. Well, you start making some more money off these Instagram Reels, you start flying by. Instagram Reels, man. I mean, with Dana White joining Metta, I'm actually

a little excited about Instagram. Yeah, we'll see what happens. They're certainly singing a different tune now. And I've had some conversations and some meetings with their senior team. Dana's obviously one of the most solid guys out there. And he was incredibly helpful to the president in so many different ways. Dana is obviously, Dana is one of the most solid guys out there. He was incredibly helpful to the president in so many different ways.

I'm excited that his voice is now going to be heard on that board and he is not shy about making his voice heard. I'm grateful that he's in there. Maybe Instagram takes it up a notch, but the platform for a long time, I felt has been, at least for conservatives, has been totally dead. I was early on in building Facebook platforms and invested hundreds of thousands, if not over well over a million dollars in building up Facebook pages. Then all of a sudden, they kill your pages, you can't reach anybody.

I post something, I get nine likes, and then I was like, screw that, I don't really want to be part of it anymore. So it was a great platform. It used to be a great platform. Maybe it can return to being a great platform, but they certainly need to shake up what they were doing. Absolutely. I definitely agree with that. TikTok, where are you at with that?

That's a controversial one. I just got banned on it again. I get banned every week on TikTok. Are your dance moves not that good or what's the deal? No, dude, I can't dance. Maybe that's it. They wanna get quality over quantity, maybe dancing. But no, with all jokes aside, I'm in favor of TikTok. TikTok was a great platform for us this campaign cycle.

I don't necessarily believe the narratives being spun up about the dangers of it, if you will, because I know how this city works. The TikTok is a threat narrative came out just two weeks after or two weeks before Instagram launches Instagram Reels. And then it comes out in 2022 that Metta paid a Republican advocacy firm nearly $50 million to spread anti-TikTok issues. I'm hesitant to just buy that narrative personally, but it was also a great platform for us. We reached billions and billions of eyeballs on TikTok and for no spend. It's a great platform, the youth loves it. And Biden also loved it up until he did it. So he was on TikTok.

If he thought it was a threat, if he thought it was a threat, why was he on the platform? So it doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, yeah, you guys took advantage. Charlie Cook, Charlie Kirk did really well on TikTok too. He's a great dancer. Yeah, he could dance, man. His debates, those clips are so viral.

I mean, he was probably getting billions of views as well. Yeah, it's fun seeing that Charlie's been a long time friend of mine and he crushes it on TikTok because he's really good at those sound bites. You know, he's really good at those, yeah, 10 second, 30 second hits that get a ton of play and he's perfected it. He's been doing it for a long time and he's probably the best in the game at that. Yeah. What did you think of Zuck throwing the Biden administration under the bus on Rogan's podcast? Well, I wish you would name names, but Zuck's certainly pivoting in the right direction. I hope it's a genuine pivot. I hope it's something that stays far past Republicans in power stay.

We really need to have trust in our great companies. Facebook was a great company. Facebook was a great company. It is a great company. It's one of the giants in our country. And we need people who love our country running these companies. So, Zuck obviously played a big role in Biden's victory in 2020.

$500 million with Zucker bucks, a lot of suppression of conservative content and voices. And now he's taking tampons out of boys bathrooms and singing the right song. So I hope it's genuine, but we will see. Yeah. Takes a big man in Trump, like, like repairing these relationships. You saw him getting along with Obama with, with Zuck now. And these people did some pretty crazy things in the past to him.

Yeah. And that's something that I think the media has failed to explain about Donald Trump. It's like Donald Trump loves people. He is a people person. He's one of the most genuine people you'll ever meet. He's very real. What you see is what you get, what he talks about. But he doesn't switch up.

The people around him switch up. He released a book in this past year called Letters to Trump. It's all a bunch of celebrity letters from over the years that people like Alec Baldwin or Oprah or different people like that that wrote to him. It's talking about how wonderful you are, sir. You're such a great blessing to my life. You helped me with all these different things. And then all of a sudden, he runs for president and they switch up on him.

And so he's never changed. But now a lot of people are kind of coming back, but he's always stayed the same and that's something I admire about him. I love that. Yeah, you got Snoop Dogg at the crypto ball last night. You got Mike Tyson coming through. Rick Ross was there too. Rick Ross.

Yeah, I'm a big Rick Ross fan. A lot of people don't know that about me. They see Alex, they fuck like, I like smooth jazz or something, but I'm a Rick Ross fan. You're a hip hop guy? Oh yeah, that guy's a, that guy's a boss. I love him, man. How's your health, dude? Cause I've staged in Sydney, it was pretty wild,

seeing that all over X. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm good. Thank you for asking. And that was kind of a crazy moment, obviously. Yeah. You're so young too. Yeah. I'm not vaxxed for the people and the conspiracy theorists out there. That was just something that severely dehydrated. The lights were really hot and it was a recipe for disaster. But I was overwhelmed with the outpouring support and love and messages I received after that. And yeah, I'm gonna drink a lot more water now.

Yeah, and you're working nonstop too. You think it was some stress? I don't know about that. I think we handled stress pretty well. And I think it was just, uh, more lack of water. You know, water is important. These are things you don't know. You growing up, you don't know water is important, but you, when you fall off a

stage and you look cool doing so, but when you fall off stage while giving a speech and then you find out it's because you don't drink enough water, you start drinking water and understanding its importance. There's memes of Trump only drinking like Coke, like no one's ever seen him with water. Yeah, see, I was trying to do the Trump diet, but it only works for him.

Some of these things only work for him. And I've been blessed to get to spend a ton of time with him. So I try to pick up on some of his habits I can't pick up on. But I can't do it anymore. I have a metabolism that slows down. So if I eat a couple McDonald's burgers, I get fat right away and I want to look appealing for the ladies.

So I got gotta slow down the McDonald's. Makes sense dude yeah I had to give up fast food too I feel you will not. Well Alex it's been fun anything you want to close off with here. It's been great and I'm proud of all your success it's exciting times ahead it's been a great four years and I think you're gonna have a lot of fun this four years. Me too man, look forward to it. Yup, yup. See you guys. With the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for, when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette, with our ever-growing library of digital slot games,

a large selection of online table games, and signature BedMGM service, there is no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to you than with BedMGM Casino. Download the Bet MGM Casino app today. Bet MGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BedMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.