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India: The Government and Social Media
| Contents |
| #1 Indian Elections 2009 |
| #2 Interesting Development |
| #1 Indian Elections 2009 |
Politicians in India are increasingly utilizing digital media tools and blogs. This was evidenced in the recent Indian Elections 2009. Since the last election held in 2004, demographic profiles have shifted. In 2009, more than 50% of India’s population (1150 million) were below the age of 25 and there were 42 million new voters eligible to vote. Also, internet and mobile penetration in India increased dramatically since then, from 26 million to 365 million for mobile, and from 16 million to 80 million for the internet. As a result of the tragic Mumbai terrorist attack and the wave of “Obamamania”, young urban Indian voters were expected to be very active in the voting process and the moulding of India’s political landscape.
As such, both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress sought to attract and reach out to young urban voters. For example, BJP embarked on a 360 degree campaign inspired by President Obama’s. Lal Krishna Advani, the leader of the party, set up his personal website and introduced a variety of interesting features such as his personal blog. A Youtube channel was also established to share opinions and thoughts with potential voters, extending the route of communication from traditional media channels.
The BJP simultaneously ran various aggressive advertising campaigns, with the help of Google, with search ads reaching as many as 200,000 keywords, placement ads across 50,000 websites, and banner ads across 2,000 websites. It also leveraged the mobile market, sending 1 billion SMSes to about 250 million cellphone users. With such a comprehensive programme aided with the use of social media tools, it was estimated that its campaign managed to reach 75% of India’s internet population.
The Indian National Congress, on the other hand, resorted to Web 1.0 tools. Its official websites were merely online catalogues that did provide any forms of interactive media or medium to encourage audience participation.Though the Indian National Congress eventually won, BJP’s innovative use of social media in its campaign has set a precedent for future elections in India. As more and more Indians are increasingly involved in the Internet, it is important for politicians and governmental bodies to engage them through this medium- facilitating a greater appreciation of political issues and a greater involvement in the foundations of the nation.
| #2 Interesting Developments |
Perhaps we are already witnessing the fruits of BJP’s labour. There are signs that politicians are increasingly making use of social media and blogs to connect with the growing young and computer-savvy generation. In fact, current Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh recently established a Facebook profile that is regularly updated while Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor set up a Twitter page, sharing his thoughts via Tweets regularly. Another interesting development involves the planned use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter by the Ministry of Road and Transport Highways and International Road Federation to help reduce the number of fatal road accidents by 50%.
Source: gauravonomics
ShandyAlidjaja |
Latest page update: made by ShandyAlidjaja
, Nov 12 2009, 10:14 AM EST
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