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It’s time we elect our Social Media Minister


Embracing the changing times, the politicians of our country have moved forward and chosen a new medium to do what they like to do best – talk! Moving away from the traditional media of press conferences and television statement bytes, the government officials have changed their way of keeping in touch with the masses. Right from young guns like Rahul Gandhi, to the older ones like Narendra Modi, everyone has made it a point to be alive and kicking on various social media websites including Facebook and Twitter. Moving ahead with the new medium, our leaders are now online participants in many areas where their audience is gathering to collect views, news and opinions about everything they want to. Its almost every day now that we hear that our politicians are actively tweeting away their views and opinions, thus adding to the increasing number of country leaders on the world wide web.

Trying to use their “new loudspeaker” to the fullest, many a politicians have not only used the medium for criticising their fellow tech-savvy politic leader, but have also used it effectively in the campaigning for elections. To quote a recent example of the Uttar Pradesh elections a few months back, the various political parties were hell bent in wooing the younger, urban voters of the state. To achieve the same, they ventured into cyberspace and explored many a domains in there. While the Congress party released quite a few YouTube videos, emphasizing on the party’s stand in the nation, and promoting rallies, other parties like the BSP also ventured into writing blogs, and creating their pages. Sure enough, their mediums were used to ensure that the members of all the other parties were portrayed as corrupt or deceitful.

Though the parties are trying hard enough to be part of the internet savvy generation, the question of “Are they doing enough” still remains, with the answer definitely being a negative. According to a recent study, political parties in India are far from using the various platforms offered by social media to its full potential. Though they have been able to engage their audiences on social networks with informative content and updates, there is still a lack of strategic depth, long-term commitment and intent to execute diverse engagement programs. Moreover, a clear indicator on how many of those virtually engaged would actually go out and vote, let alone cast their ballot in a party’s favour, is still to be determined.

Keeping the parties aside and going on to the individuals, there are many who have adopted social media to the fullest and spread their messages by their tweets, Facebook updates, and blogs. Rating on the amount of involvement with the social media, here is a list of the top three politicians of India (in no particular order) who are making an effort to embrace the cyber space.

Can they be elected as our Social Media Minister?