• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 1, 2017

Consider this one onscreen MSNBC blurb during a Senate hearing: “Facebook, Twitter, Google Grilled Over Russia’s Reach During Election.”

From a marketing point of view, the term “reach” has significant meaning, as a key element of a media platform’s ability to deliver ad exposure to a set amount of consumers.

Did Russia have a specific-reach media plan here? Or was it scattered and random? No matter. Automation tools for content and advertising on social media and digital areas are more important.

On Twitter, NBC News said Russians used more than 36,000 “active” Russian bot-produced accounts to spread 1.4 million tweets over a three-month period leading into the presidential election. They were shared with tens of millions of Twitter users. There are nearly 70 million U.S. Twitter users and 328 million globally.  

The day before, it was revealed that Russian "bot" Facebook accounts delivered messaging to 29 million Facebook users, who in turn, share, "liked" or passed on this info to reach 126 million users with 80,000 posts over a two-year period.

Those 126 million users account for about half of all U.S. eligible viewers.

And don't forget Google. MediaPost’s Wendy Davis reported that Russian operatives uploaded 1,108 videos to 18 YouTube channels, generating 309,000 U.S. views from June 2015 to November 2016.

Now -- for a moment -- forget about the 126 million users Russia reach via Facebook -- or the 70 million U.S. Twitter users. For many, it comes down to a smaller number: 77,744.

That was the total number of voters Trump won by in three key states -- Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin -- to beat Hillary Clinton.

From a marketing perspective, Russia’s media plan -- whoever was in charge -- was a good one. From a U.S. government security, election and political point of view? It was devastating.

Many experts say messaging from Russia operatives could become worse -- that for the next big U.S. elections, we are already behind in trying to stop it.

For sure, big social media platforms will probably see some federal regulatory stuff coming their way. Can it be stopped? Next time, Russian operatives need to be more sophisticated with social media -- and maybe with the one key U.S. media channel Russian operatives did not infiltrate: television.  

The easy part -- currently -- is that social media platforms are relatively "open" places to do business. Not just to tweet or post content, but to buy advertising with little-to-no human contact through automated systems.

That’s not the case for traditional TV networks or TV stations -- at least for now.

While major TV marketers desire more automated TV ad-buying systems -- especially when it comes to local TV station media buys -- efforts are scattered. They don’t reach significant scale or more traditional national TV marketing reach.  

National TV marketers aren’t making any big changes in their media plans when it comes to new automated TV media-buying systems.  

But for international TV marketers, say four or eight years from now? That's anyone's guess.