India’s 16th National general election which was held in nine phases during April and May, 2014. It was probably one of the most awaited elections in the recent times. It was due to the changing Politics of India. Social media played a vital role in deciding which party wins the most seats.
A interesting report published in April 2013 by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). The Mumbai-based Iris Knowledge Foundation, assisted IAMAI in the study.Facebook users have a tremendous impact over the results of the polls in 160 of India‘s 543 constituencies. The reason for this is the youth of India. As per study, 50% of population is below 25 age group. Secondly, 65 % is below 35 % age group. This population is either studying in college or working in various companies. Companies such as IT companies, BPO‘s, research centres and various other sectors or are either entrepreneur. Their busy schedule has created a virtual distance between television and radio. It is specially in case of acquiring or sharing information. The youth is tech savvy and love being connected with updated trends and topics. Such connectivity is possible by using laptops, desktops or the most favourite a network connected mobiles.
We at PAAGC Digital Pvt. Ltd. believes that, “the better the Marketing, Better is the Chance to win. For political organizations beholding to influence potential voters digital targeting is the one thing that can’t be ignored. Although voting is a responsive act, there are certain transactional indicators that can help forecast where a vote might be cast. First of all, we need to understand that digital marketing and politics both want the same thing: persuade people to do something. Convince them to buy a product. Convince them to vote for you. And convincing them takes exertion and time, of course.
How is digital marketing helpful for a politician?
Facebook has 93 million users and Twitter has an estimated 33 million accounts in the country. As per the LAMAI report 2013 this change for presence of social media could be observed as every political party participating in 2014 general election has set a 2-5% of its election budget for spending on social media. The report says that the leading parties Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Nation congress party has set this it 500 crores and 400 crores, respectively.
Social Media (i.e. Facebook,Instagram, Twitter etc)
1. Twitter- Twitter is a wonderful platform for the political organisation 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.
Lately many politicians have adapted to the norms and culture of social media, per se; ArvindKejriwal, UP CM Aditya Nath Yogi and our Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Their updates and feeds on various social media platform about latest happenings and events keeps us informed. Our HRD minister SushmaSwaraj has also been quite active on twitter and has made her presence felt by replying to the requests by the one’s needing help or assistance.
2. What’s App- the BJP and Congress parties claimed to have set up at least 50,000 WhatsApp groups between them to spread their messages. At the same time, many others, their identities are unknown, distributed videos, audio clips, posts and false articles designed specifically to rile up the area’s Hindu-Muslim fissures.
3. Facebook & Instagram- Facebook and its photo-sharing platform, Instagram are used widely in India, a daily user of Facebook awarding 10 “likes” on the average each dayFacebook offers penetration and reach to marketers especially those operating on shoestring budgets, as they do not have to spend large amounts of money on expensive marketing campaigns. Moreover, unlike traditional media where the effectiveness and efficacy of a marketing campaign cannot be measured directly and instead, readership or viewership metrics are used, Facebook marketing can be measured for its efficacy as click through and conversion of eyeballs into purchases is readily available. Further, Facebook offers the unprecedented chance for marketers to target a global audience and at the same time, consider local factors. In other words, what this means is that marketers can create campaigns, which have a global theme and at the same time can reach out to their local audience as well.
4. Youtube Marketing
The most recent statistics on online video and YouTube are mind-blowing: Nielsen reported that Americans streamed 15 billion videos in the most recently recorded month (May 2011). While traditional TV viewing was up only 0.2% over last year, Internet video viewing was up 35% and mobile video viewing went up 20%.
Before you throw all your marketing dollars into YouTube, however, you might want to consider this other statistic: 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube… every minute. In the time it takes you to read this article, about two weeks of fresh content will be posted. Watch the video below and add another three days.
In other words, there’s a lot of competition for those eyeballs.
