What's behind Harris' social media dominance

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has dominated social media with an influx of viral memes and cutting taunts of the opposition — and behind the keyboard is a team of Gen Zers.

The "mobilization team," made up of the generation that encompasses 12-27 year olds, is leveraging talked about moments from the campaign trail and reacting with humor while capitalizing on viral TikTok trends to force a contrast between Harris and former President Trump.

They've seen much success embracing "brat summer," "femininomenon," celebrity endorsements and coconut tree memes.

They've also embraced a cheeky communication strategy that at times directly mocks Trump...

 The @KamalaHarris TikTok account gained 2 million followers in the first 24 hours since she became the presidential nominee and now has over 4.8 million.

    The first six TikTok videos had more than 113 million views combined as of earlier this month.

    The @KamalaHQ account, which was rebranded from Biden HQ, has grown its following from 440K followers to over 3.9 million followers.

 The campaign told Axios its TikTok videos had, as of Aug. 9, accumulated more than 462 million views since launch.

The team has embraced the potential of memes to break through with a younger, perpetually online demographic, it said.

 The objective was to "break through a challenging media environment to reach the voters who are most difficult to reach" and to meet them where they are, including on social media, a campaign spokesperson told Axios.

"From palm trees and coconut emojis to Charlie XCX's 'brat' endorsement, online memes supporting Vice President Harris have taken on a life of their own..."

Its "rapid response" accounts, which are part of the "mobilization team," work on reacting to and capitalizing on trends and key moments in real time, often without the need for approval from higher up the chain, according to the campaign.

Soo important in a fast-moving business in a fast-moving world: hire the right people, trust them, give them freedom, and good things happen. This is a 180 degree change from Harris' 2020 campaign, run by her sister, where decision-making was as plodding as in a military requisition store and decisions frequently were made after the world had moved on.

The digital team, which has partnered with hundreds of creators and influencers, works on fundraising content and developing social media posts.