How AAP Used Social Media to Win Over Delhi
Today, Arvind Kejriwal from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the Delhi elections with a clear majority, giving little room to the main opposition, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP).
At the time when Narendra Modi, leader of the BJP, had run the campaign for the 67th Lok Sabha elections, he had made sure to make his presence felt on social media. In fact, it has been considered as one of the important factors that led to him becoming the Prime Minister of India. He had hired an able team which used Twitter and Facebook well and kept his million followers updated about his every move. Even his YouTube channel had all his updated speeches, neatly arranged in playlists. At that time, Aam Aadmi Party’s social media campaign had been considered ill-focused and misguided.
Things have certainly turned in a new direction – it seems like BJP didn’t give the digital world the same importance for the Delhi election, while AAP played the game to win.
It wasn’t only the two, all parties tried out every possible measure to spread their message to the masses. Social media was heavily utilized and major tactics were adopted.-
Here are some examples of how AAP won the social media war:
In the past couple of weeks, Twitter was flooded. #DelhiDecides remained the top trend followed by #AapSweeps. #DelhiDecides saw a total of 81,000 comments and it touched the rate of 160 tweets per minute. AAP followed the footsteps of PM Modi and set up a team completely devoted to checking the posts and it clearly worked in favour of the party.
Facebook the prime focus of the party during the election. Through Facebook, millions of followers could track Arvind Kejriwal’s every move during the campaign. Meetings with dignitaries, selfies with celebrities, were shared. It was used as a mini blog, giving an impression that followers were directly receiving messages from the man himself. Arvind Kejriwal’s team ensured they stayed in touch and spread his work through Facebook.
Radio Campaigns
While Radio cannot be considered a social media tool, AAP used it like it was. For weeks before the election, radio was used to reach distinct corners of Delhi that lacks internet access. It became a major medium to connect and speak to the Delhites, and listen to their grievances.
Paanch Saal Kejriwal on YouTube
AAP remained the hot topic on YouTube as well. Vishal and Shekhar composed a song called Paanch Saal Kejriwal which went viral.
