The upcoming local elections have been dubbed the country’s first “social media election”, as parties harness the power of social media to get across their message.
From President Jacob Zuma mentioning Twitter in his State of the Nation address, to the DA hosting a “question and answer” session on Twitter where DA strategist Ryan Coetzee answered questions, the quest to woo young voters is on.
Political analyst Daniel Silke said it was essential for political parties to use social media to reach young voters.
Big political parties like the ANC and the DA had grasped the importance of the medium, but this was hardly surprising since they had the necessary resources.
Silke said smaller parties should be capitalising on the method too, since it offered a relatively cheap way of getting across their message, as opposed to expensive newspaper adverts or printing posters.
“What we need to remember is that young people derive most of their information from the internet. Parties who fail to get sophisticated online media by having poorly designed websites or no Twitter presence, lose out on potential voters,” he warned.
But it is not only Twitter being used to reach out to young voters. The “vote ANC” Facebook page has 21 215 likes (members), while the “vote for Helen Zille” page has 10 848.
The Western Cape’s newest party, the Cape Independence Party, has 4 282 members.
Another analyst, Gus Silber, said the parties had a duty and a “very strong motive” to communicate with their voters and potential voters using social media.
“No longer can parties rely on political rallies, meetings, and door-to-door campaigns alone. They need to use every available medium that they can,” he said.
“This is South Africa’s first ‘social media election’, and parties which use the power of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, MXit, the web and so on will be at an advantage in the propaganda war.”
Silber said the ANC was “disappointingly not using social media to its full potential at all”.
“They do have Twitter streams, but their use of the medium is hesitant and tepid.
“The ANC Youth League, for instance, has a Twitter account that serves as little more than a vehicle for sending out links to online political statements.”
The ANC as a whole, he added, was also not engaging with the electorate through social media.
“Either they do not understand the full power of social media, or they are for some reason reluctant to unleash it.”
He said the DA was ahead of all parties with their use of social media, especially Twitter,
“They have embraced it with a newfound zeal, and their candidates, leaders and strategists are making optimum use of channels such as Twitter and Facebook.
“They seem to be at home on social media, and are unafraid of using it to engage with their voters, potential voters, sceptics and opponents alike.”
Silke also agreed that the ANC could be making better use of social media, but said that while opposition parties like the DA could engage in more “guerrilla marketing” which made their tweets more exciting, the ruling party’s tweet would not be as exciting as they would be promoting their policies and talking about what the government had achieved. - Cape Argus