Social Media and Politics

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It hasn’t even taken social media fifty years to leave a mark on the psyche and habits of our kind. It has completely revolutionized the way several things work in our world and has seeped into almost every sector of the society. People use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok all the time- it has become a phenomenon on its own.

So heavy is its impact on people’s way of thinking and absorbing information that even politicians turn to using social media for their election campaigning. Doing so has ensured success for them in significant political endeavours.

Donald Trump

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Donald Trump used social media perfectly in his 2016 and 2024 campaigns to communicate with the voters. He specially preferred using Twitter as his tool for engaging with particular demographics and shaping his political manifesto. Using his reach and unconventional use of this platform was a hit amongst social media users.

Other than Twitter, Trump also used Facebook and employed the use of data analytics and targeted advertising to reach out to specific demographics- this also ended up persuading undecided voters who now had specific messages tailored for them. This strategy turned out to be extremely beneficial for Trump and he won in the 2019 elections.

Emmanuel Macron

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When Emmanuel Macron started competing as a presidential candidate for the French elections in 2017, he was still a stranger for many voters. Many people scarcely knew about Macron and he had a lot of work to do if he wanted to emerge as the victor in the elections. He decided his weapon would be social media.

Macron worked towards building his own political movement- La République En Marche! This was done with the help of social media which backed Macron’s digital strategy. Using it had very good consequences for Macron whose influence reached far and wide because of how well-tailored these advertisements were. All of his political ads were able to cater to a broad audience. They also handled one more thing- misinformation and cyberattacks propagated against him were dealt with nicely. Ultimately, Macron won and all of this he owed to the power of social media.

Narendra Modi

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Narendra Modi has become one of the most famous politicians in the world after scoring three consecutive victories in 2014, 2019, and 2024 in India’s elections for the post of the Prime Minister. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janta Party- a party which had been on the losing end when competing with the Indian National Congress. This was the case up until 2014 after which the whole political scene in India was reversed.

Narendra Modi made exceptional use of Twitter in his 2014 campaigns to turn around the public’s favour to him which led him to a spectacular victory. He didn’t disturb this momentum even after winning and kept at it until the next elections in 2019 and 2024. By then, this digital strategy had spread to platforms like Instagram and Whatsapp too, where viral content was generated to keep the public, especially the youth, engaged.

Jacinda Ardern

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Defending her Prime Ministerial position, Jacinda Ardern engaged in a re-election campaign in New Zealand in 2020. Her attempt at re-election relied heavily on the presence of social media as an instrument to bolster her standing within New Zealand politics. As was the case before, Facebook and Instagram stepped up their game with a new digital strategy that featured live streams of speeches by Jacinda Ardern, personal stories about her life and regular updates about her manifesto.

By mixing up personal and private content, Ardern’s intention was to connect with the public. Her transparency and genuine nature touched many voters and she managed to win by a landslide in the re-election.

Joe Biden

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In 2020, Joe Biden used social media extensively for competing in the presidential race. His main focus was to build a strong online connection with the voters and compete on equal grounds with other candidates in the race who were already adept at using social media.

As a part of Biden’s political strategy, emails and messages were sent by party officials personally to people, live video messages were streamed, and social media partnerships were fostered for increasing Biden’s outreach. He had understood that modern technology and social media were intricately woven into people’s day-to-day life and would do wonders for boosting his chances of winning. And he won as well.

This just proves that social media has worked like magic for those who knew how to use it properly. It has reaped its benefits every time it has been utilized the right time and will continue to do so because of the effect it has on the human psyche.

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