Social media is changing the way communications happen and has undoubtedly become a major aspect of political campaigns too.Taking you a little into the past, way back in 2008 presidential elections, U.S. President Barack Obama was the first candidate to use it effectively. Since then, the use of this extremely useful platform has grown with the increasing number of people using it to publicize their political views. Leading from Facebook updates to Tweets to YouTube videos and appeals, social media has become a yet another significant tool for political campaigns and also for supporters. Millions of people, especially youth are actively present on social platforms. Thus, social media opens the doors of opportunity to reach out to and stay connected with voters persistently at a very low cost. This is the reason political campaigns include social media in their marketing strategy.

Politicians, as a part of their social media strategy, create posts to engage followers just like brands do. The main idea is to create content that people share, helps for fundraising purposes, creates awareness of what is happening during elections etc., and to determine where do the candidates stand.

These days Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party founder Arvind Kejriwal, who is followed by more than 1.1 million people on Twitter, deals with it and finds time to tweet and retweet to those with whom he shares his views of a corruption-free society.

Social media is indeed the latest advertising tool for the politicians and political parties of today. An form of advertising, maybe that just influences the right set of people, mostly young people who are always ready to share their feelings on social media to make that difference.

Followed by Kejriwal there’s Narendra Modi, Gujarat chief minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate with 3.1 million followers on Twitter. For Modi to shape opinion, this has become an effective tool.

On Tuesday, 14th January, Modi tweeted his picture with Bollywood actor Salman Khan. The two met in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and flew kites on the occasion of Uttarayan. The same day Modi also wasted no time in greeting all on the occasion of Id-e-Milad. He also wished those celebrating Pongal, Bhogali Bihu and Lohri, all harvest festivals in different states.

The emergence of Aam Aadmi Party, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and many other political developments happening back-and-forth, the political parties and politicians are ready to watch out for these trends and go to a place where people looking for a change would assemble, and that is Social Media.

If ad sector sources are to be believed, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi will mark his presence on Twitter and Facebook soon. Currently, the 43-year-old leader has no personal Facebook or Twitter accounts, unlike many of his rivals.

Even Agencies such as Taproot-Dentsu and Burson Marstellar are said to have been given the mandate to manage advertising and public relations for Gandhi and the Congress party.

Source: www.afaqs.com

The Current Scenario

Political Campaigns help build a connection with Voters: Mostly, whatever happens on social media related to political campaigns are not interactions or back-and- forth dialogues with voters, but a hope that these posts or messages will get voters to vote in some way. Though candidates may or not be directly replying or communicating on these social media platforms, but they could very well view the responses or opinions on the subjects or issues they post.

Social Media Strategy for the Political Campaign: When one sits back and analyses, one will find that a person’s vote also gets affected a lot depending on the views shared by that person’s friends, family, groups etc., basically that’s the way social media works here.

Today, the time has arrived when people with interests in politics and political campaigns and related stuff are actively subscribing to candidates on social media platforms like Facebook & Twitter and those who aren’t just get to see the posts ‘liked’ by their friends who are politically active. Politically savvy people are a source of information for those without much interest.

A candidate might have millions of subscribers or followers, but because of the viral effect due to social media presence, it may reach to 100 million. Therefore, the use of social media in the political campaigns is not only important but very much critical too.

What Next?

One needs to be on social media, but one cannot be just on it as it’s not just a means to reach out to the desired target group but it should be a part of the major campaign strategy.

The use of social media in the political sphere attracts quick feedback, interaction or policy ideas. it gives an instant read on how something would shape up.

If used to make a good conversation, Twitter is a fantastic medium.

Lastly, if a candidate is on social media, one will have to maintain a certain level of decency & decorum on the same. It’s a great medium and the political parties should use it to clearly put across their propagandas or agendas in order to inform the people or voters about what the party is doing.

Social Media is a very powerful medium & therefore political parties should use it to promote their party and their work. That’s because, with huge number of people and the rising speed of communication, the impact of these campaigns is also high. Your thoughts?