Social Media Rhetorical Analysis

Social Media as a Tool for Generating Votes
The use of social media to generate votes is a very new concept. It is still in its preliminary stages but it shows great results as it helps gain popularity among the voters and confidence through them. Various instances of the use of social media have occurred in the past three years which sort of reconcile the fact that it is a powerful tool, not only in generating votes but, spreading awareness, messages; collecting data and understanding the people. Without social media, there will be no proper communication channels between groups of people. It is due to the vastness of social media and its population prowess that it has gained so much popularity in many different fields as a method to market certain
products, ideals and also to publicise different things, in this case, electoral candidates and parliament members. Unless and until there is something that can match up to the scope of social media, this tool will be the one important instrument in shaping various political alliances and voter-candidate relationships. Unknown parties have gained thousands, if not, millions of votes through social media marketing and have succeeded in proving that social media is the tool in gathering votes and creating a movement, politically or non-politically. In today’s day and age, the race for technological advancement and intellectual superiority is what drives the world to utilise social media as a tool for mostly anything. In the case of politics and the elections, social media is used as a tool to generate votes by spreading messages, creating a forum and establishing a more savvy and new connection with the voters. Social media helps facilitate a very personal relationship with many people due to its scope and expanse . This outreach that various websites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have ; helps bridge the gap between people that are not usually available for general communication and those that want to communicate with them. In a way, social media is a tool that is used to create, improve and manage connections with a wide array of clients, customers, friends, relatives and more. It is important to have a stronghold in the realm of social media firstly because almost everyone that has access to internet is a patron of social media, secondly, due to the personal nature of social media, it can be used as an agent of sorts to create a large pool of interested and loyal voters, thirdly, social media is something that has the ability to make, break or shake a person’s career and reputation; finally, it is important to keep up with the changing world and its need to be ahead in all technological aspects, therefore social media can help in the ‘catch-up’ process that the new world is involved in . This essay aims to explore the various facets of social media, the methods and the results that can be obtained by using social media as a tool for generating votes. The scope and the outreach of social media is one to be reckoned with, and this is what will appear as the biggest advantage to any candidate if they are to use social media to reach out to the masses and gather votes. Through various examples, this essay will highlight the uses of social media and its obvious benefits to different political entrants in gathering votes and creating a majority in the house. To summarize, the essay will study the uses, methods, types, reach and scope of social media in generating votes through examples and scholarly discourse.
I. Social Media – Why & How? To understand the relevance of social media in the realm of voting, it is imperative to understand the workings of social media itself. Apart from the obvious connection factor, social media is used as an instrument to create awareness and propagate certain ideas by spreading it across the entire span of the internet. The large audience that the internet provides to a user is unparalleled. It is believed that almost 100% of the world population is a patron to the internet vis. social media. It is because of the scope of the internet that social media can be used in various campaigns. Social media is versatile and as such it serves almost every purpose when it comes to marketing and public relations especially for an election campaign. To make proper use of social media in gathering votes, it is important to acknowledge and scrutinise the target audience of the required marketing gimmick. It is not appropriate to publicise a campaign to children that have not yet attained the appropriate age to vote, neither is it appropriate to market a campaign in an area that is not permitted to vote or cannot partake in the voting process. The analysis must take place before the use actually begins . The better the plan more is the possibility of a better campaign. Once in place, the target audience must be decided and then the design and content must be created conforming to the likes and dislikes of the audience in mind. Due to its versatility and flexibility, social media can be tweaked around to create a forum for a particular campaigner where he or she can actually understand the voters and show concern for them, adding more faith to the voter’s decision and thereby securing more votes. The revolution of social media as a tool for marketing started with the popularisation of social media among the various countries of this world, the unrestricted access that one gains through social media is advantageous to certain businesses and electoral candidates as they can create a nation-wide, if not, world-wide awareness of the brand they market. There are multiple instances of social media being used as a tool to generate votes in India and abroad. It is mostly due to the sheer volume of the number of people that use social media in today’s technological world that uses social media to engage in campaigning et al. One example could be the European Parliament elections of 2013 in which many of the British MP’s had considered the benefits of social media in the elections, one Labor MEP also said, “I can drive around my [East of England] constituency for two hours to address a public meeting of five people, whereas a post on Twitter instantly reaches thousands of potential voters” This indication of the acknowledgement of the power of social media to reach the masses faster and easier is something that drives the electoral campaign to win. As stated before, it is the plan that matters and the proper implementation of this plan of action that will make or break the campaign. Until and unless someone makes an effort to actually harness the power of social media in securing votes, there will not be any progress with respect to electoral campaigns. When in 2010 , the Tumasan Campaign first used Twitter, one of the leading social media websites, to enhance the voter turnout. After this campaign, almost every other campaign started to use websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Reddit and many more to facilitate their election campaigns in different ways as compared to the old method of just going around and giving speeches.
WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS
June 30, 2012
World Regions Population
( 2012 Est.) Internet Users
Dec. 31, 2000 Internet Users
Latest Data Penetration
(% Population) Growth
2000-2012 Users % of Table
Africa 1,073,380,925 4,514,400 167,335,676 15.6 % 3,606.7 % 7.0 %
Asia
3,922,066,987 114,304,000 1,076,681,059 27.5 % 841.9 % 44.8 %
Europe
820,918,446 105,096,093 518,512,109 63.2 % 393.4 % 21.5 %
Middle East
223,608,203 3,284,800 90,000,455 40.2 % 2,639.9 % 3.7 %
North America
348,280,154 108,096,800 273,785,413 78.6 % 153.3 % 11.4 %
Latin America / Caribbean
593,688,638 18,068,919 254,915,745 42.9 % 1,310.8 % 10.6 %
Oceania / Australia
35,903,569 7,620,480 24,287,919 67.6 % 218.7 % 1.0 %
WORLD TOTAL
7,017,846,922 360,985,492 2,405,518,376 34.3 % 566.4 % 100.0 %

II. The Reach of Social Media Social media has one of the largest outreach expanses when compared to all other methods of mass media. Almost the entire world is a patron to social media and its vastness is what let’s certain figures exploit the outreach of this tool and gather votes. Since the viewership of social media is higher than television or radio, it is of essential use in a political candidate’s campaign in the elections. The world population, as seen in the table below, has access to internet and in consequence, social media also. (Ref. Figure 1) If one were to look at the table above and compare it with Figure 1, it is clear that the social media use throughout the world is extremely high; no other method of communication will work so efficiently and on such a large scale. This will make sure that the voters are informed and kept up-to-date with the latest trends and data on the candidate they place their faith in. Anybody can use social media to get in touch with anyone else from anywhere in the world. That is how vast and unimaginable the scope of social media is. It is like a net that is spread across the world that can be accessed by mostly everyone. One voter can reach the electoral candidate whenever they want and voice their opinions. This reach that social media has is what powers campaigns for the better. According to a survey, almost 120,000 votes were gathered by the Berlin Party in the 2011 elections which secured them with 15 seats in the European Parliament There are certain obvious benefits of social media as a tool to gather votes, but there are some underlying benefits and advantages also that cater to the needs of the people. They can gain an insider’s view on the candidate they are going to vote for and make a proper decision based on that, they can understand the dynamics of voting and elections and play important roles in the same. The interesting fact about the usage of social media is that there is a lot of scope for all the participants in the election to create a sort of large viewership of their accounts, pages, blogs and more. The more interactive and useful the content, the better it is for those taking part in the elections. One downside to the aspect of social media is that it expands the networking horizons but at the same time it does not necessarily show a true picture of a particular person or thing, it may conceal certain aspects of the person or thing it represents and publicise the rest – though that is also the case in general media advertising – not only does it conceal but it also may be disadvantageous because of its flexibility, where a politician or electoral candidate can get involved in certain situations that do not benefit themselves . It is an important issue here because the point of social media is to create a connection and impact those that are interested.
III. Use of Social Media There are multiple examples of social media being used in various election campaigns. These are not restricted only to India but span the entire world. As stated before, the European Parliament uses social media very often in different situations ranging from the elections to various awareness campaigns. Political parties in India are now on the social media marketing spree where netas and different parliamentary members have taken to using websites like facebook and twitter to gain acceptance in the voter forum. The BJP, the Congress, the TDP and others have started using social media as a means of gathering votes by creating interactive, informational and impacting content on their respective domains on the internet. Through social media many of the parties’ have begun to spread across messages and updates about their leaders and more to the people . This fast and primary usage of spreading information to the people is the main aim in using social media as a tool to procure votes.
IV. Need and Importance of Social Media As stated by various campaign strategists around the world, it is important to have social media as part of the campaign strategy, but as Patricia Mitsuka puts it aptly; “You need to be on social media, but you can’t only be on social media. It’s not at the point yet of being a single means of reaching out to the public, but it’s part of an integrated strategy that a campaign would execute.”

This statement clearly points out how social media, though necessary is not the only component of an electoral campaign to gather votes. As an important aspect of the strategy, social media plays a great role in providing viewership, publicity and flow of communication with the various voters in a region. There is no unnecessary intermediate assistance in the process of communication and information exchange as all parties involved in the process are present and witness through social media The prowess and the range that social media provides to its users and patrons is on a level that encompasses the entire planet. From isolated corners to densely populated regions, the internet and social media on the internet are raging forums for various things and the foremost of which, is gathering votes for political campaigns and elections and many other parliamentary issues. In conclusion, it can be said that there is no better way to create a voter pool than social media outreach. In spite of its vastness, due to its versatility and its flexibility, as stated previously, social media can help reach almost everyone and not only on a general level, but on an individual and personal level also. It is clear that social media is a tool to gather votes and is a new phenomenon waiting to supersede most other public relations and publicity methods in the mass media forum. “Social media sparks a revelation that we, the people, have a voice, and through the democratisation of content and ideas we can once again unite around common passions, inspire movements, and ignite change” – Brian Solis

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