Digital Marketing: A Medium to boost your political influence

Leading the entire nation is not a piece of a cakewalk. The most crucial part lies in progressing to develop as people’s choice. However, in the present era, the concept of leading the nation has boiled down to a single mere word “Politics”, that revolves around the fact that, one who wins the heart of millions, wins the throne. With a desire to bring a wave of change in every five- year term, political parties dauntlessly leverage numerous strategies to spread their propaganda and expand their political reign. In what we know as a campaign, the word has significantly taken a major boost in the political arena in the past decade. The modes of campaigning have been improvised in many manners with the aim of reaching the targeted audience. It is very essential, that being a candidate for an electorate, one must adopt certain measures in compliance with the guidelines provided by the Election Commission prior to the day of voting in order to garner widespread attention amongst the voters.

Technologically, certain steps have come up in the present time that have not only proved to be efficient in regards to expanding political outreach but has also been very cost-effective. Political campaigning in association with the medium of Digital Marketing has enhanced effectiveness of Political propagandas to a great extent. If we take instances of leaders overseas, their political popularity prior to the elections have got boosted up, only because of various digital platforms.

When Donald J Trump won the US Presidential election in 2016, one of his first statements was, ‘social media helped me win!’. Even Google proclaimed Trump “won the election in the search.” Although Trump was always ‘a favourite’ of social media due to his controversial lifestyle, quotes and his popular TV show ‘The Apprentice’, nobody even thought that his digital marketing media presence could be so compelling that it can win him the presidency! Now that’s the power of digital marketing. Nowadays, a simple post on Facebook, an attractive picture on Instagram, some quirky Twitter post can do wonders for the candidates who are going to compete in an election. However, how can digital marketing influence voters in such a big way? Let’s dig a little deeper and find out the various mediums of enhancing digital political outreach and the underlying reasons behind their popularity:

• Digital Advertising: This low-cost advertisement option can be utilized to engage the voters in a meaningful way. Though the word ‘sponsored’ is generally mentioned on these ads, but while going through innumerous relatable posts, people generally overlook that. A party’s reach to its audience increases tremendously through these ads as the inbuilt algorithms of digital media help them to reach the exact target audience.
• Dynamic Website: Mobile phones have become very handy or we can also say that it has become the need of the hour, owing to the various information/latest news it keeps us updated with. So, if you want your manifesto to reach a vast audience, building a website could be one of the best possible ways. However, it should be ensured that the website remains dynamic throughout and doesn’t become stagnant with older and obsolete news.Gone are the days of websites costing thousands of dollars to build out. There are tons of really cost-effective platforms out there that allow you to host your site and even design it in a fun and creative way.
• Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, all of these are free for you to use, so why not? They are fun, interactive ways to communicate with your supporter base. People love to promote candidates or causes they care about on these platforms, so make sure you’re in the community of the like-minded people. Beyond just being present on these platforms, make sure you customize your online content to fit seamlessly into them. One of the most accessible ways is to go live at regular intervals and speak about the issues concerning public interest.

• Digital Fundraising: Fundraising through a digital medium has become a trending topic in the market. It has become one of the easiest ways by which you not only attract your supporters by delivering what they look upto you but you also play a vital role in promoting/upliftment of a particular community you have committed to for the purpose of serving. This also expands your support bases amongst that particular community. But at the same time, make sure that it is as easy as possible for them to reach your fundraising platform and henceforth support your campaign!
• Power of Polls: One of the many interesting features that digital marketing platforms offer is you can conduct polls on various platforms time-to-time. The results will be unbiased, not at all manipulated and will indicate the flaws of the policies put forward by the parties and the agenda with which they are going to the election. Unlike physical polls and exit polls conducted by market research organizations, polls on social media can really put forward almost accurate insights.
• Ask and Answer Questions: Asking questions is a proven way to boost engagement on social media. Q&As are the bread and butter of political accounts. Posing typical questions to your followers is a simple way to encourage a bit of back-and-forth. Likewise, it’s a way to show that you’re willing to listen to your constituents. Using platforms such as Instagram Stories, you can vet your questions privately and post the answers publicly to your followers. This allows you to publish more thoughtful responses and likewise serve as something voters can reference in the future.
• Visually pleasinng designs/infographics: Visual content such as videos and infographics are among the most-shared social content. This has proved to be effacacious across pretty much every platform. If you’re making an important announcement, consider how you can put together a visual to match up with it. The benefit of posting visual content is that it’s prime for sharing, which in turn gets your campaign account in front of more voters. In turn, you set yourself up for fresh followers who can learn about your platform and what you stand for.

The digital realm is one of the most important political battlegrounds for winning votes on a massive scale. Like it or not, social media and politics have become inseparable. That’s because so much of our political discourse happens via social media. Well, one can never estrange social media from his life, so does the current political parties/ candidates who are adopting to so many numer of advanced technical strategies to expand their reach.

(This article is an intellectual property of Cereb Media Company. Although the publisher — Cereb Media and the author — Saurav Sahoo have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time and while this publication is designed to provide accurate information in regard to the subject matter covered, the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any other inconsistencies herein and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.)