After playing the catchup game to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Social Media for years, Indian National Congress is finally succeeded in utilising social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to espouse its stature as an opponent.
On Facebook where it lagged behind Bhartiya Janata Party by big margin, Congress’s social media strategy may finally be paying dividend. Congress’s official Facebook page with 3.4mn weekly engagement is ahead of BJP’s official page which has weekly engagement of 2mn.
The increase in engagements over social media can be described as the method employed by the grand old party to reach youths and convey that it stands in support of the citizens.
However, it cannot be denied that the social media handle of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been witnessing a wider engagement and outreach whose posts have been increasing to reach the heights of 4.5 million, while Rahul Gandhi’s Facebook page has weekly engagement of 2.6mn.
There has been a steep rise in the number of engagements attracted by Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account. According to Social Media Analytics website socialtracker.io, Rahul Gandhi got at an average retweet of 11,528 while PM Narendra Modi got an average 2598 retweets per tweet. It must be noted that PM Modi is among the most followed personalities in the world, having massive following across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram among other platforms.
Congress social media success is mainly because of its Facebook posts, it addresses and voices for the farmer’s protests, closely visits urban and semi-rural areas to understand the struggle faced by the ordinary citizens. Its campaigns have always been directed towards inclusion and welfare for its citizens. This narrative illustrates its presence during its posts made by the INC.
To further increase their presence on Social Media, earlier this month Congress Social Media Chief Rohan Gupta initiated a campaign “Join Congress Social Media” across states wherein five lakh social media warriors have been called whose primary role will be to defend Congress actively across Social Media Platforms.
A series of videos by prominent Congress leaders have been released in social media with the hashtag #SaveIndiaJoinCongressSM has been doing rounds, urging the people to join the INC’s media cell. This must be perceived as the counter of the Information Technology Cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
