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Social media gives savvy candidates an edge
View(s):Social media-savvy candidates are off to a running start in the election, overcoming the handicap imposed by strict observance of restrictions on posters and cutouts, and “digital agents” are making good money from candidates.
Technically, campaigning for the August 17 parliamentary elections started at noon on Monday(13 August) but the younger politicians, well-versed with the social media machine that grips the world today, had already started updating friends and followers on party policies, building voter bases.
Many politicians interviewed by The Sunday Times said they had social media up and running for some time and were using it to advantage to boost their preference votes. Many deemed social media a powerful tool to interact with voters, especially the younger generation that is voting for the first time.
United National Party (UNP) Colombo District candidate Harsha de Silva said he had been active on Facebook for two years and had almost 80,000 friends. He said he also had 20,000 followers on Twitter.
Social media allowed one-on-one communication and views could be expressed freely with immediate feedback on opinions, Mr. de Silva said. “It is democratic media and a powerful tool,” he added.
Navin Dissanayake (UNP-Nuwara Eliya), the outgoing Minister for Sports, said he already had personal and official Facebook accounts. “Yes I will be using the social media for my campaigning,” he confirmed.
Gampaha District United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidate, actress Upeksha Swarnamali, said she was continuously interacting with people on Facebook and Twitter. “It is a good medium to share opinions,” she said.
She said she had not planned on contesting this time around and had not been canvassing votes but now, with only one month to go, she will be involved in intense campaign work. “I will be actively campaigning on Twitter and Facebook,” she said.
UNP candidate Kabir Hashim’s campaign secretary Rikaz Hussain said that since advertising in the electronic media (television) was expensive they would use Hashim’s webpage to promote him and also use the print media.
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) candidate M.A. Sumanthiran said he had opened a Facebook page recently and hoped to gather more friends soon. At the moment he claimed that he has around 1000 friends. “It is a powerful tool to target the younger generation. I will definitely use it,” he said. He also has a web page that would be used for campaign purposes.
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) candidate Vijitha Herath said his party had a Facebook group account for all to share and some members possessed individual accounts and were present in other social media. “Our leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, is on Twitter and has around 4,200 followers,” he said.
Candidates not into social media are finding digital agents to fill the void. Agents disclosed there had been many inquiries from politicians to design web pages and for SMS and email packages.
Packages on offer include 200,000 emails to addresses in a database and SMSs to around five million mobile phones. One agent revealed that his company charges Rs. 3,000 for one campaign (sending a message once) and Rs.15,000 for five campaigns with a bonus campaign included in the larger package.
Interestingly, it is not only the politicians who are seeking social media help to cover this election but also the election monitors, who are reaching out to the people through Facebook and Twitter in a bid to educate them on choosing “clean” and quality candidates.
Last week, the Elections Department also joined in the fray and created a Facebook group account where the public could lodge complaints on posters, cutouts and other violation of election laws. Additionally, the department has set up centres for election complaints at district level where the public can report such incidents by telephone, fax and email.