SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICS: A CASE STUDY OF FACEBOOK, WHATS APP, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM IN TODAY'S POLITICS

WHAT IS A POLITICAL SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT FIRM?

"A hired professional firm that provides inherently political services, including digital, on-ground or strategic advice."

TIMELINE FOR THE EVENTS WHICH MADE SOCIAL MEDIA AN IMPORTANT TOOL IN POLITICS

· 2008 U.S. General Election

In the 2008 U.S. general election, the internet and social networking sites, in particular, played a more significant role than they ever had before. The 2008 presidential campaign was the first to play out in the world of YouTube, Facebook, Myspace which are the major Internet-based social media.

Obama won a decisive victory over McCain, winning the popular vote by a sizable margin, including states that had not voted for the Democratic Presidential Candidate (The Democratic Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States, along with its main rival, the Republican Party) since 1964.

· 2014 India General Elections

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a sweeping victory, taking 336 seats. Smart personalized content across formats such as short videos, memes and GIFs engaged voters across digital and social media platforms during the elections. The internet population of the country grew by 108% to 250 million in 2014. This election was fought on content marketing across digital and social media platforms. How often do you see a rap song coming out of a political party handle? That was the beauty of social media where minimum efforts and smart content yielded maximum results.

This marked the start of a new era, the "Digital Marketing for Politics" which our very own country yet again witnessed in 2019 General Elections, showing it is not here only to stay but grow more. The effect of 2008 U.S. General Elections and 2014 Indian General Elections was so huge that immediately we saw not only local political groups but worldwide political groups increasing their digital presence.

SOURCES AND REFERENCES:

1. 2004 US GENERAL ELECTIONS WIKIPEDIA

2. 2014 INDIAN GENERAL ELECTIONS WIKIPEDIA

3. HOW SOCIAL MEDIA HELPED BJP IN 2014 GENERAL ELECTIONS

4. THE SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICS

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