Karnataka polls: How content is customised on social media to woo voters

From short videos to cartoons, candidates contesting the upcoming Legislative Assembly polls are going all out on their social media campaign.

Most political parties and leaders have dedicated social media managers. But the strategy during election time is completely different, experts said.

While traditionally, tweets and posters with assurances and promises by candidates were the order of the day, now, many candidates look forward to posting creative content with better visualisations during the election season.

“The candidates look for customised content and now the trend is short videos with appealing content. Many times, we also come up with punch lines and customised dialogues to attract the crowds,” one of the representatives from a political digital campaign management company, working closely with Congress, said.

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Many videos have gone viral over the last month, especially those with a mix of sarcasm. “Special content for reels and stories is also the need of the day, to attract the youngsters,” the representative added.

While a few candidates tend to showcase their achievements through videos with infographics, others look at highlighting the misgovernance, corruption, and drawbacks of other candidates. “Informative posters and videos about civic issues are a big hit among people,” yet another content manager said.

Apart from videos, posters and photos also catch attention, but need to be curated well, said a representative from Rajneethi political management consultants. “When we talk about political campaigns on social media, either candid moments of the candidate with an emotional angle or pictures of the mass gathering, an ocean of people will catch attention,” the representative said.

An estimate by one of the consultants showed that at least four crore voters of the close to 5.2 crore voters in Karnataka have access to the internet and use various social media platforms, which highlights the need to use such platforms.

However, the consultants added that social media campaigns can never replace on-ground campaigns and could only complement them. “The candidate’s ground presence is key to campaigning. Based on these events, we can design content. But, social media campaigns cannot replace the traditional on-ground campaigns,” a representative from Rajneethi political management consultants said.