Politics in the Digital Age
2014 elections welcomed a new age of campaigning using social
media. Today, almost all political parties big or small, for the centre or for
the state have found a new way to campaign- famously known as digital
campaigns. It is certain that while scrolling down your Twitter or Facebook
feed you have noticed the uprising presence of these digital campaigns which
have actually made it easier for the parties to reach out to more people than
they ever could. Catchy hashtags dig at oppositions everything has become a
part of their digital campaign. But is making the campaigns enough? Monitoring
the campaigns and targeting the right audience at the right time is as
important as the content.
Earlier this year, Congress launched a digital campaign
#ChowkidarChorHai to which BJP launched their campaign #MainBhiChowkidar and
now Congress is all set to launch an offensive against the BJP with a new
campaign. Apart from social media, Congress needs to run media and outdoor
campaigns, for which they have hired three agencies- DesignBoxed, Niksun, and Silverpush. These agencies have given
successful results in the past making them the first choice for Congress.
For
example, Congress had hired DesignBoxed for Assembly Election in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh
where the party won ultimately. The current campaigns will focus on the
promises that were not kept by the NDA government and the content will focus on
issues like job scarcity, farm distress, etc. along with the response to
#MainBhiChowkidaar.
Since Facebook has a bigger influence, the campaigns will
focus on Whatsapp for distribution and Facebook for content uploading. The
agencies hired will look after these campaigns. Niksun specializes in
production, digital and branding solution while Silver push works around optimizing TV and OTT media. Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter have agreed
to a general code of ethics and takedown requests from the Election Commission.
The war of the hashtags will continue till before the elections and the
analysts from both the parties will try to swing votes in this year’s
elections.
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