social media as an effective tool for political marketing

© 2018 IJRAR December 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4

www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR POLITICAL MARKETING- A RESEARCH REPORT. Dr. MOLOY GHOSHAL (Associate Professor) Delhi School of Professional Studies and Research (DSPSR), New Delhi, India.

Abstract: the main objective of this research paper was to find out the voters opinion about the impact of social media buzz put by different political parties on this media. For data collection purpose, a convenient sampling technique was employed. Face to face interview was conducted among 200 voters from different areas of New Delhi, India; who also are active members of any social media. All the participants took part in interview were assured about anonymity and confidentiality about their identity and data shared. For visual representation of data, table has been used as a descriptive analysis tools. To prove the hypothesis, SPSS 20 software was used and linear regression analysis has been performed. The finding indicates that a political party can achieve a higher number of general election seats in an election if it has a well developed and well equipped social media team to promote it and attack the opponent with more and more viral posts. Very few researches have been done on this topic. The research paper provides evidence of social media buzz impact on election seat conversion. However it seems that there are many more issues to be covered in order to come into a solid conclusion. Key Words: political marketing, political parties, internet, social media. INTRODUCTION: In this present era of internet revolution, social media has emerged as a strong medium for communication and networking throughout the world. Companies big or small, local or global have already recognized the power of social media as a easiest, quickest, cheapest way to reach their target customers. Keeping in view the success of social media to promote the product or company, political parties of different countries are using social media as their political wall campaign. Kelly (1956) is generally credited with the first use of the term political marketing. Lock and Harris (1996) point out that “political marketing is concerned with communicating with party members, media and prospective sources of funding as well as the electorate”. Wring (1997) defines political marketing as “the party or candidate’s use of opinion research and environmental analysis to produce and promote a competitive offering which will help realize organizational aims and satisfy groups of electors in exchange for their votes”, Harris and Kolovos, (2004). Gone are the days when political parties had to depend on conventional mode of communication like wall campaign, public meeting, and public relation, but use of internet, social media like facebook, twitter, instagram create new way to market their political campaign. Though political marketing is increasingly use in democratic political system like India, in which people of the country determine the fate of the party and formation of Government; military rulers are also using social media to build up their image as a people friendly ruler. Introduction of modern marketing concept has changed the mode of operation of political parties. Parties have become more market oriented rather than voters oriented and are engaged to frame their program and policies in tune with opinion polls and market survey. Information revolution and globalization have played a major role in this transformation. It has been argued that if parties are implementing marketing concept, it will seek to meet the voters needs and wants, and thus achieving voters satisfaction and in doing so thus will get electoral support to meet their own goal. In 2013 the American Marketing Association approved the following definition: "marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large". LITERATURE REVIEW: Political marketing: Concept and Implications It has often been argued that application of marketing concepts and instruments in politics is not a new phenomenon, this may or may not be true, but what certainly has changed in the last ten years and so, is the magnitude of political marketing, the belief that has been developed in the mind of political leaders, the application of marketing thoughts in promoting the parties agendas, inculcating professional marketing experts and also formulating strategies based on marketing theories (Henneberg, 2004). Because of these occurrences of marketing practice in politics, the use of marketing theory as a means of explaining these phenomena seems obvious. While political science or other related disciplines have little to say about topics such as segmentation, brand management, or strategic capability management they fit easily into an explanatory scheme that is based IJRAR1905262

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explicitly on management and marketing theory. As such, political marketing is a necessary but not sufficient way of getting to grips with some modern developments of Indian democratic life. It allows us to describe certain political phenomena in a way that political science would not be able to. Furthermore, as a part of the established tradition of marketing theory, political marketing theory can integrate a descriptive understanding of political marketing management with a prescriptive theory, i.e. one that can help political actors to apply political marketing management techniques effectively and efficiently. Model of Political Marketing Cwalina et al (2011) have analysed several approaches, theories and model that interpret that concept of political marketing including those provided by Niffenegger, Reid, Kotler, Harri etc, in our view, is the most comprehensive and encompassing all political marketing models developed by B. I. Newman. It highlights both connection and distinction between economic and political marketing as well as internal and external forces influencing them. Here we provide the representation of Newman model in fig.-I Candidate focus The Marketing campaign Environmental forces A. Party Concept.

Mkt. Segment

Candidate Position Strategy formulation & implementation

B. Product Concept C. Selling Concept

-Assess voters Need -voters profile -identify voters Segment.

D. Marketing

Assess candidates A. The 4Psstrength & need Product (campaign) Assess competition Push mkt. (grass root Target segment efforts) Estd. Image Pull mkt. (mass media) Polling (research) B. Org. development & control

Concept.

The political campaign

Preprimary stage→ Primary stage→ Convention stage→ General election stage.

1.Technology Computer T.V. Internet 2.Structural Shift

Primary & conventional rules Financial regulation Debates. 3.Power brokers shift in influence

Candidates Consultant Pollster Media Political party Voters Voters

Fig: I The model of political marketing as defined by Newman It is a common misconception that political marketing is done solely during election campaigns but these days political marketing techniques are employed not only during electioneering but also well into governance. This helps to retain the electorate's loyalty and also to attract new voters. Today we can talk about the so called "permanent campaigns", a long-term process that is designed to guarantee continued governance (Smith & Hirst 2001). Mass media as tool of political marketing Mass media is one of the most potent forces in shaping public opinion and has thus become a powerful tool in political marketing campaign. In some sense it became ‘the fourth estate’ (the other three being legislative, judicial and executive power), Cwalina et al (2011). Mass media has evolved from being merely a channel of communication to being an autonomous power centre, a game changer, a major factor in the process of campaigning (Entman, 2007). Mass media is defined as that main mean of mass communication regarded collectively. Mainly two types of mass media have been identified; mainstream mass media and alternative mass media. Main stream mass media influence a large number of people and is reflective of prevailing current thought, influence and activities. The invention of TV leads to emergence of political TV advertising. The dominance of TV as a mass media has lead to a major shift in the ways politics was conducted. Alternative media differ from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content and the way they are produced and distributed. They include weblogs and social media. Internet technologies and social media provide politicians with plethora of digital tools enabling the public to engage in political life. Social media is exceptionally potent political communication tool in

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terms of getting instant feedback from the voters which allows politicians to evaluate the effectiveness and to fine-tune their political marketing. However, there is also a downside to going digital for politicians. Even a tiniest mistake of politician, a funny slip of the tongue, can be instantly recorded and downloaded to YouTube, then replicated and shared on social media and ultimately, growing viral. For example, a minor loss of memory by Rick Perry in 2012 which had been taped and posted on YouTube has lead to his withdrawal of candidacy (Maarek 2014). Interestingly people perceived non paid media like TV, news papers to be more valuable source of information than political advertising and internet source (O, Cass, 2002). Contrary to this are the findings by Kim & Johnson (2009), who studied credibility of difference source of political information in South Korea. They found that independent online newspaper is more credible than either traditional media or other internet sources. In recent year there has been a tremendous development of alternative source of medium i.e. social media as a medium of political communication. The Power of Social Media In the light of rise in power of social media with passage of time political parties are more active on promoting its agenda and attacking the opponent parties with the help of professional cyber experts. Politicians with higher social media engagement got relatively more vote within most political parties (Effing et al, 2011, Jungherr, 2013). According to Ceron et al (2014) there is a positive correlation between twitter sentiments and poll and which shows positive for some leaders, while for some other there is no positive correlation. However in case of Indian parliament election 2014, volume of tweet and vote share had a positive correlation (Safiulla, Pathak, Singh, Anshul, 2016). Same in Delhi assembly election, 2015; Facebook likes of political parties and vote gained by political parties had a positive correlation, (Safiulla, Pathak, Singh, Anshul, 2016). OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: the main objective of this research paper is to find out the voters opinion about the impact of social media buzz put by different political parties on this media. HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION Based on the literature review, the following hypothesis was formulated. H0: There is no positive correlation between social media buzz and general election outcome. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research instrument, the questionnaire was prepared based on extensive study of previous research, articles, and discussion with experts. Few dominant variables of consumers psychology was identified and approved by the experts, for the purpose of data collection pertaining to this aspect of voters behaivour. The primary section of questionnaire demanded respondents to fill the demographic details like name, age, sex, qualification, occupation etc. A convenient sampling technique was employed. Face to face interview was conducted among 200 voters from different areas of New Delhi, India; who also are active members of any social media. All the participants took part in interview were assured about anonymity and confidentiality about their identity and data shared. Before the conduction of main survey during July- August, 2018, a pilot survey was conducted among 20 common voters to find out any shortcoming in the questionnaire. For visual representation of table has been used as a descriptive analysis tools. To prove the hypothesis, SPSS 20 software was used and linear regression analysis has been performed. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION Table-1: Demographic profile sex Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

male Valid Missing

119

59.2

59.5

59.5

female

81

40.3

40.5

100.0

Total

200

99.5

100.0

1

.5

201

100.0

System

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The above table No.1, shows that out of 200 people were interviewed, 119 respondents are male; in percent for near about 60% respondents are male and 81 respondents are female; which is 40% of the total sample size. The model summary table No. 2, shows the summary and overall fit statistics. The adjusted R2 of our model is 0.433 with R2 =0.435, which implies that the linear regression can explain 43.3% of the variance in the data. Table-2: Model summary Model Summary Model

R

1

.660

R Square a

Adjusted R

Std. Error of the

Square

Estimate

.435

.433

.36354

a. Predictors: (Constant), Opinion of Voters towards Social Media Influence The next table is for the F-test table No.3; linear regression’s F test has the null hypothesis which states that there is no positive correlation between social media buzz and general election outcome. The F-test is highly significant, and thus can assume that there is a positive correlation between social media buzz and general election outcome. The coefficient of social media is positive and significant (p˂ 0.05) for conversion of social media buzz into seat owned. The finding indicates that a political party can achieve a higher number of general election seats in an election if it has a well developed and well equipped social media team to promote it and attack the opponent with more and more viral posts. Table No.3 ANOVAa Model 1

Sum of Squares

df

Mean Square

Regression

20.187

1

20.187

Residual

26.168

198

.132

Total

46.355

199

F

Sig. .000b

152.742

a. Dependent Variable: Conversation of Social Media Ad into Seat Owned b. Predictors: (Constant), Opinion of Voters towards Social Media Influence Table No.4 Coefficientsa Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized

t

Sig.

Coefficients B (Constant) 1

Opinion of Voters towards Social Media Influence

Std. Error .466

.077

.681

.055

Beta

.660

6.040

.000

12.359

.000

a. Dependent Variable: Conversation of Social Media Ad into Seat Owned Discussion: Though the finding of the research shows a positive inclination about the effectiveness of social media buzz and increase in seat in general election but it is also true that only two major political parties of India say Congress and BJP are actively engaged in social media with a professionally managed team of experts. The regional parties are still relying on conventional mode of campaign as they believe on one to one communication with voters. Illiteracy and non availability of technology to most of the voters may be the major reason of doing so. But state like West Bengal, Goa, Kerala where the rate of literacy is comparatively high, the ruling local parties are using the social media for promotion purpose. The finding of this research is important for political parties as well as for academicians. The study has some limitations also. The major limitation is the sample size and sample area. Only 200 voters were interviewed and that to in a metropolis city like New Delhi, where voters are very much active on social media and social media buzz by political parties on different social media have a great influence on voters mind. But to get a clear and big picture about the impact of social media on seat conversion in general election, one has to consider both big and small cities and as well as the village areas where most of the voters decide the fate of the political parties and the Government based on their relationship with local leaders not based on national level issues. IJRAR1905262


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