Barack Obama’s successful networking on the social media space and his landslide win against Republican opponent, John McCain can teach a thing or two to Indian politicians raring to go on the election blitzkriegs slated early next year.
India has a handful of educated, technologically savvy third-generation politicians who can definitely take a leaf out of Obama’s book and benefit from it.
Barack Obama, the harbinger of change in the United States of America (USA) will go down in the history as not only the first African-American to lead USA that first brought Africans to its shores as slaves but also as the first president who aggressively used social media networks such as facebook, flickr, youtube among others to reachout and embrace social communities and raise astronomical sum for his election campaign.
However as social media sector in India is still in its infancy, the outcome may not measure up to the spectacular response Obama garnered during his two-year campaign period but as a networking tool it can still do wonders for our desi politicians.
Fundraising for elections in India is not as transparent as it is in the West hence raising funds within the social media space will serve as a difficult proposition; however social media can be used as a platform by Indian politicians to connect and initiate a two-way communication with technologically savvy young Indians.
One of the key constraints in India is that Internet connections are not growing as fast as we would like. Social media during the Indian elections can serve as just a channel of communication as internet penetration in India is minimal. Despite the low penetration, India already has 80 million Internet users which makes it the third largest Internet market in the world behind the United States and China. Total users are expected to grow by about 40 percent this year, according to Morgan Stanley, almost double the growth rate in other developing Internet markets like China and Brazil.
The opportunity for additional broadband penetration combined with a sizable middle class with tremendous spending power makes today’s investment landscape in India extremely attractive.
Social media during the Indian elections can serve as just a channel of communication; however Indian politicians should not be ignoring this tool as it surpasses all others in terms of bandwidth and reach and cost.
Now let’s see how social media helped Obama win election. What’s interesting in Obama case is that he used social media to his advantage by connecting with fellow Americans over a two-year period which helped his campaign find new audiences to engage with. During his campaign, Obama not only used the top networking sites but also made his presence felt in niche communities mainly targeting youths.
Obama’s campaign
In many ways, the story of Obama's campaign was the story of his supporters, whose creativity and enthusiasm manifested through multitudes of websites and YouTube videos online. It even saw volunteer contributions like the innovative Obama '08 iPhone and iTouch application that enabled owners to mobilize their friends and contacts in battleground states through the Apple devices.
It will be difficult for Indian politicians to ape Obama’s social media campaign as social media awareness in the country is very low. The main reason for lack of awareness is low internet penetration. However a beginning can be made by our politicians in the forthcoming general elections.
