India: New Riding the Social Media Wave to Victory

India’s PM sets new benchmarks in his landslide victory

The strategy
Wooing India’s young voters, who formed the largest group of new voters in the general elections of 2014. 50% of the 1.25 billion population of India were in their early 20s! India currently has 91 million Internet users. The plan: Raise the coolness factor of voting and influence young voters via sharing, tweeting, Facebook, YouTube, SlideShare and more.

The edge
Capitalizing on how little other political parties – especially the ruling party of 10 years – used social media, a 60-member cell in Narendra Modi’s campaign unit worked for 5 months to engage young voters.

The outcome
18.1 million Likes on Narendra Modi’s Facebook page, second only to Obama at 40 million Likes. Modi, however, has a greater growth rate on Facebook (1.171%) compared to Obama’s 0.3%. He became the 6th most popular world leader on Twitter. His victory message: “India has won. Good days are ahead,” was retweeted 69,000 times. 2.2 million volunteers enlisted for his campaign via social media, and studies estimate that 40% of India’s election outcome was impacted by the social media buzz!

Analyst-speak
“The social media effect was huge for the BJP. … They really understood that social media is an extended version of the campaign trail”: Michael Kugelman, a senior program associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

The way ahead
“Modi will use social media actively for crowdsourcing of ideas and seeking inputs on policies. He is using it as a participative tool:” Arvind Gupta, head of BJP’s information technology cell.

The near future
Analysts say that by the 2019 general elections in India, social media will have a 60% impact on voters.

Conclusion
The valuation of companies like WhatsApp or Facebook needs to include the impact these companies can have on global events.

Compiled by Dheeraj Rathi, Managing Director of Ecovis RKCA, India, who’s simply blown away by the dedication of India’s current PM Narendra Modi.

“Today, be it in business or politics, you ignore social media at your own peril.”

Author
Dheeraj Rathi
dheeraj.rathi@ecovis.com