How To Use and Not Use Social Media in a Political Campaign

Social media is becoming an increasingly popular information channel for political figures worldwide. Presidents and prime ministers all now have their own web pages with links to their Facebook, Twitter and Youtube pages. Now that these forms of social media are used by millions of people globally, they are obvious tools for anyone wanting to portray a message of any kind, be it politicians, marketers, volunteers groups etc.

In the earlier days of social forms of media, they were not perceived as being genuine or reputable enough to use for important messages. Social media was just something that young people used to keep in touch with their friends 24/7. But now, especially following Barrack Obama’s highly successful 2008 election campaign, social media is a proven performer for politicians into the future.



















The online article ‘The Obama Online Campaign, by the numbers’ quantified the impact of social media on the 2008 election. The article was written by Rob Cottingham, and can be found on www.socialsignal.com. Here are some telling figures from the social media election campaign:

- $600+ million raised, most of it online
- 6.5 million online donations
- 13 million addresses on his email list
- 7000 different email messages sent
- 1 billion total emails sent
- 1 million text message subscribers
- 2 million profiles on MyBarrackObama.com
- 400,000 blog posts written
- $30 million raised by personal fundraisers on MyBarrackObama.com
- 5 million supporters on other social networks

When you actually think about these numbers, the degree of reach achieved and the amounts of funds raised as a result are significant. This is a great example of how effective social media can be when it’s used well!

However, there are examples of a social media political campaign not working out so well. Take the 2009 Indian General Election, and L.K. Advani’s Adwords Campaign. Basically, Advani was a candidate in this election, but he and his party were resoundingly defeated due to a poor social media campaign. Those in charge of the campaign had the right idea, utilizing a blog, a Facebook page and a Youtube Channel, but then the campaign proceeded to bombard the viewers with aggressive advertising and promotion rather than supporter communication and interaction. The election was lost because of the ignorance evident in the misuse of social media.

So in summary, social media is a fantastic tool for politicians and political parties to use, and should be used far into the future, but only in a well measured, sensible and effective manner.