By: Pragya Singh, Asstt. Editor-ICN
Political parties across the globe are learning that along with advertising on traditional mediums such as television and newspapers, they must invest in digital marketing if they want to compete with their rival parties.
We are living in a Digital Era, wherein everything is Digitalized now , from our workplace to our home, everything is getting digitalized rapidly. Election Campaigning is also getting digitalized through the Social Media and it is playing a vital role in the Election all around the World. It was more than a decade, when internet marked as a powerful medium of communication globally.
However, due to technological reach and access, it was more vocal in the developed countries and developing countries like India. With the advent of new media technologies the communication process became more direct, fast and complex.
Today social media is not only confined to the metropolis but reaching to the small cities and towns among the educated youth. Social media is definitely playing a crucial role in opinion formation as well as mobilization of masses. Recent estimates indicate that nearly 500 million Indians have access to the internet. And of these roughly 300 million use at least one social media networking platform.
Social Media – A Road to reach out to Youth
The politicians of India have adopted social media because they know where and how to find the youth of the country on majority. Social media has become a platform of voiced opinions and charges and even though politicians for their campaigns still use posters, cut-outs, fliers and graffiti for their rally, but becoming digital and being attentive over digital platform has changed the picture of urban India and politics. Educated young Indians are increasingly replacing mainstream media as a conduit for political communication.
Social Media Strategy to win Elections
Social media have become ubiquitous communication channels for candidates during election campaigns. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter enable candidates to directly reach out to voters, mobilize supporters, and influence the public agenda. Twitter is a wonderful platform for the political organization to broadcast information on a worldwide stream; be it debates or discussions. India is the third largest user of twitter with an estimation of 53.1 million active users (as per census of 2015).
The number of masses using for this platform is on high and turns to be the great way of influencing the elections and campaigns. Now, Modi is the third most followed political leader on Twitter after Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of political digital marketing in recent history is Donald Trump’s digital campaign. Though it was certainly controversial, no one can deny the now U.S. President’s campaign was extremely effective.
Political parties across the globe are learning that along with advertising on traditional mediums such as television and newspapers, they must invest in digital marketing if they want to compete with their rival parties. In India governments have been using the social media to propagate the welfare activities carried out by them and to reach the public at large to address their grievances.
