Social media…
IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring
… and the rise or fall (?) of global politicians!
With an increasingly globalized world social media have become an invaluable tool of the international political trade, and it will continue to evolve. Just ask our good President Rodrigo Duterte and/or Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for example.
We are living in a world where YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter can make you a star, keep you a star or help catapult you to the highest political offices in the world. Or we see the total opposite.
It’s not just ‘entertainment-it-girls’ (or boys!) using the tools of the social media trade. Politicians and heads of government are too, and now they are reaching beyond the traditional marketing avenues to address their constituents and reach an audience that sometimes transcends their own national borders.
I came across Bhupesh Shah, a social media marketing expert and professor at Seneca College in Toronto, Canada, ranking as one of the Top 50 business professors to follow on Twitter. He says that it is helping leaders connect with their citizens in an “efficient and effective manner.” If I meet other business people and ask them about their Facebook or Twitter accounts, I mostly receive a positive smile and answer. Of course, I have!
Back to Shah, who says: “It is absolutely critical for politicians to be accessible and to disseminate their message as wide as possible. Not fully leveraging the tools available nowadays, and sticking only with traditional methods would be fatal. And this is absolutely correct!
Arguably the most successful by virtue of followers and likes are India’s Prime Minister Nerendra Modi and US President Barak Obama. Modi now has over 20 million followers on Twitter, while President Obama has over 77 million and both continue to wrack up the likes on Facebook and have taken to YouTube, whether it’s to be interviewed or to post.
Both have one thing in common when it comes to their social media presence: they get personal.
Rather than just posting canned political messages they’ve stepped out of the traditional political box, posting more intimate glimpses into their lives, like Obama exercising with the Vice Presi-dent or playing football with his dog.
“Social media gets around the so-called gatekeepers and takes the message directly to the virtual street!… You’re typically reaching the younger demographic, those that are keen to have their voices heard,” said Shah.
But social media is also a rapidly changing arena and there are pitfalls that can trip anyone up – or down! Trudeau, Modi and Obama have largely managed to avoid these, although the Canadian PM has faced criticism within Canada over his use of social media, most notably after he answered a question about quantum computing from a journalist that went viral. Some criticized him for planting the question solely for social media purposes.
“Leaders should recognize that anything they say or do can and will be used by the public (and media) for their own agenda. This means that they always have to be ‘on’ – knowing that what they say will be instantly captured and shared,” Shah explains. Correct! We just experienced this with our president Rodrigo Duterte, didn’t we?
With an increasingly globalized world social media has become an invaluable tool of the international political trade and it will continue to evolve. Modi, Obama and Trudeau are pioneers in this realm and their experiences online are shaping what’s to come both internationally and nationally for the next generation of politicians who aspire to the highest offices.
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