Social media and politics | 5 reasons for Arvind Kejriwal’s win
Tuesday was a marquee day in the history of Delhi Politics, if not Indian Politics. It was the day when almost a year after it caught the entire nation’s imagination and sprung a surprise, the Aam Aadmi Party did it all over again. Arvind Kejriwal took to the BJP’s game of social media and politics and taught them how it should be done. Let’s take a look at Kejriwal and AAP’s recipe for success on social media: –
- Apologies on Social Media can be the best apologies :Arvind Kejriwal’s perception was very negative after he walked out of the government in 49 days when he was first elected. However, he decided to renew his campaign by offering a sincere apology to people through his Facebook and Twitter pages. This showcased the human and honest side of the politician, which the audience generally doesn’t expect, and worked wonders for him proving that social media and politics go hand in hand. The apologies were widely shared and retweeted, and Arvind and AAP were back in the race.
- Engagement on Social Media is the true key to success: Success on social media for politicians is often measured by number of followers or likes, but Arvind Kejriwal clearly proved that people engagement is actually the true measure of success. Even though he had fewer followers than the BJP and Narendra Modi on Facebook and Twitter, the engagement and people response to his campaigns were much higher. The AAP launched a page called Delhi Dialogue, through which they invited the people of Delhi to share their views on their major views for Delhi, and created a manifesto on the basis of that, which people loved. Social Media and politics were in great sync here!
- A War with Social Media Weapons : Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP openly declared war against the other parties on social media, and used social media features such as Twitter hashtags and Selfies to great effect as weapons. The #mufflerman hashtag, created to mock Arvind was used by his team to put pro-AAP tweets and turned into a weapon which trended for over 14 days. However, BJP’s other hashtags such as #crazykejaria failed to impress and trended from 2 hours to a few days. AAP was able to create new hashtags depending upon the situation on the ground and make them trend. The combination of social media and politics was not working well for BJP this time!
- A true technical Sentiment Analysis is ALWAYS right : 10 students from IIT Bombay did a true sentiment analysis by studying thousands of Twitter and Facebook accounts of AAP followers, BJP followers and Neutrals to keep the tone of messaging right, and keep modifying it. They were able to understand that positive and pro-party messaging was working better than mocking and hate politics, and the same was used for Kejriwal’s campaign, and was loved by people because they were getting what they wanted. A simple reach analysis of the hashtags #CleanPolitics and #CrazyKejaria. #CleanPolitics had a reach of over 450,000 whereas #CrazyKejaria barely made it to about 10,000.
- Use all possible Social Media channels, and use them well! : The AAP used more social media channels than the BJP. Apart from the common Facebook and Twitter, the AAP also used Quora (a Q&A platform where they intellectually answered people’s questions), Mango App (where they broadcasted speeches and messages) and also popular social media influencers like the YouTube channel “TVF”. On the eve of the elections, Kejriwal appeared in a humorous video under the “TVF Barely Speaking with Arnub” banner that has mocked him in the past, and people loved his sportiness. This video was yet another example of a great combination of social media and politics.
In case if you have missed “TVF Barely Speaking with Arnub”, Watch it here :
The Delhi Elections were truly a war fought on Social Media, and as there can only be one winner, it is Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP, who used all the tricks and tools to a roaring success. Let us know what you feel in the comments about the combination of social media and politics!
