Social Media Influencers, a new hit amongst political parties

The face of Indian politics is changing and so is the marketing method of upcoming elections. Apart from television commercials, radio, and print ads -- political parties are also extensively tapping social media influencers, having a considerable fan base and strong public appeal on platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to push their messages through subtle campaigns.

And why not? After all, humans attract humans much more than artificial ads. As the influencers connect with their fan base on the topics that they are passionate about, it is much more comfortable for them to convince people for action (that too quickly). Further, since the influencers are very often not related to any political party, the audience tends to believe in their words with lesser efforts. In fact, influencers’ political disassociation makes the audience comfortable and help in gradually changing their opinion towards any political party or leader. Realising this fact, in the upcoming elections, the political parties are increasingly tying up with various social media influencers (hailing from different walks of life like food, fashion, and lifestyle among others) who have made a name for themselves on the digital platform to garner more votes and attract many new young and first-time voters.

In fact, it is believed that it would be the first elections in the country where influencers will play a massive and significant role in the election campaign of various political parties.

So, why influencer marketing?

Typically, the wide follower base of the influencers gives a valid reason to the political players to engage them to woo their target audience on their behalf in a more subtle way as against the direct one. So, through a sports star, stand-up comedian, musician or Bollywood actor playing an influencer on a potent social media platform such as Facebook or Instagram, the political parties can achieve the desired result in no time. This is no astonishing fact considering the power of these influencers who have mastered the art of engaging the target audience well in a short span of time and probably with a lesser expenditure of expensive resources. Further, such influencers generally do not give out direct messages but their messages are around voting with hashtags promoting voting or have a party line or logo in place.

That said, this upcoming elections, influencer marketing has become one of the prime marketing methods of political parties to communicate with their prospective voters residing in different parts of the country. Not only famous national personalities but even local influencers or micro influencers having huge followership on social media platforms are being approached.

Here, it is interesting to note that while many popular leaders have a noticeable presence on social media platforms, they still entrust the responsibility to connect with the new as well existing voters’ base in a natural, indirect and non-aggressive way through influencer marketing on social media. This clearly speaks volumes about the importance of influencer marketing without any doubt, PERIOD!

In a nutshell

The importance of a trusted influencer (followed by many people) who can engage the audience and make them hear his/her point of view cannot be negated. It is this power of influencers only which is prompting many political parties to leverage the potential of an influencer marketing platform for the upcoming elections as it is believed that influencer marketing can help the political parties get recognition and spread the message at every level of the political campaigning. Also, it is believed that influencer marketing has the potential to change public opinion and help boost the credibility of any candidate and help him/her in gaining public support.

That said, politics being a subject that has continued to intrigue the population since ages, is now taking a new avatar with the involvement of striking marketing strategies such as influencer marketing. This trend is on a continuous rise since past few years and its’ future is even brighter as there is an oceanic scope of experimentation and result achievement through this thought process.

-- Mr Ashutosh Harbola, CEO & Co-founder, Buzzoka.