JOIN USWooing youth strategy pays off as BJP crosses 50 lakh Instagram followers
The BJP on Thursday sent out a message congratulating its followers on social media after its Instagram account crossed 50 lakh followers, leaving farther behind its primary opposition, the Indian National Congress, which has only 11 lakh followers.
Among leaders, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has 20 lakh followers; other Opposition leaders such as Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, and Akhilesh Yadav have 1.6 million, 2.06 lakh, and 8.49 lakh followers, respectively.
With 7 crore followers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to lead the way.
Instagram, a platform built around sharing visuals, is routinely used by political parties to send out its messaging to a younger and urbane target audience. With over 23 crore users in India alone, Instagram is the one that political parties rely on when it comes to first-time voters. The platform’s key demographic is 18- to 34-year-olds, and its engagement rate is 58 times that of Facebook—making it hard for politicians to ignore.
The BJP’s official handle has almost 6,000 posts; apart from mandatory greetings, videos of Modi and Amit Shah, and graphics against the Congress, the BJP focuses on bringing out the humane side of Modi. Among Opposition leaders, Rahul Gandhi features the most.
Election strategist Abbin Theepura, who is the co-founder of political consulting firm Politique Marquer, says that in the world of political marketing, the relevance of Instagram is that it has emerged as a social media platform predominantly consulted by the youth (aged 18 to 35 years) and its popularity among the urban voters.
“Now, these two voting blocks could single-handedly decide the fate of an election. But the challenge is that even though they are available on a platter on Instagram, they are largely apolitical, or like to stay out of the regular political discourse,” says Theepura.
Therefore, politicians and political parties, the strategist says, have to come out with engaging content which could influence decisions. “Instagram is used for posting pictures and videos, the challenge is to come up with the right kind of content, both pictures and video, that go viral or engage with the audience,” he says.
As many as 1.5 crore people were first-time voters in 2019, and between 2014 and 2019 as many as 4.5 crore people were eligible to vote for the first time. In 2019, the youth voted for the BJP in big numbers, especially in major cities such as Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Delhi, and Surat.
Psephologist Partha Das, of election analysis firm Chanakyya, says that reels and influencers are the key for good content. “Reels without much text that show politicians doing everyday things are important. Regional politicians like Himanta Biswa Sarma have utilised regional influencers well,” he says.
Today, the youth account for over 15 per cent of the voting population, says Das. “The youth has as much as left Facebook, which is a dying social media platform, and are not on Twitter due to the seriousness of its content. Unemployment rates are at a 45-year high. This makes Instagram a crucial platform for any party trying to woo youth as well as urban votes,” Das says.
According to Das, analysis of the Uttar Pradesh elections show that the youth did not vote for the BJP like it did in the past, but the party was working up the numbers. “The BJP knows how important the segment is, and so it is working on them. For instance, in Gujarat, the youth account for 33 per cent of the demographic. The party is pushing its efforts on Instagram instead,” he says.