Social Media : Now Catching Up Political Class
Initially, Social Media started as a connectivity tool among friends, relatives , acquaintances, business associates. Realising the potential, advertisers started using it as an effective business platform. Now a different class want a bigger pie from this media. It is political class.
It is not very difficult to understand that why suddenly across all the political parties, there is a race to grab a social media advisor. The fact is that now people spend substantial time on social media and they form their opinion about politics and social issues based on What the read online.
Now who is this new breed of professional called social media advisors. There is certain broad characteristics that most of these professionals seems to share. Typically, they are in their late 20s or early 30s, and have a background in journalism or engineering - sometime both. Among other things, these advisors offer a mix of both - technical assistance and reputation management, they are constantly online to keep abreast of the latest developments.
Meet one of such advisor Avinash Kalla, 34 he looks after social media of C P Joshi, minister of road transport and highways. Kalla is an engineer, who has done a stint in journalism. Kalla dabbled in start ups before joining the minister last year when congress felt it better get a move on with its online presence. Elaborating his precise role Kalla says, that his job is not just to make sure the website of the ministry is getting traction but, more importantly, that feedback, queries, complaints and suggestions are not ignored.
The tipping point on the need for the political to address the broader online constituency probably came after the recent Jan Lokpal and Delhi Gang Rape agitations, in which social media platform played a critical role in mobilising mass movement.
With over 13 Crore users, India's internet population is one of the most fast growing population in the world. it is imperative for politician to have his presence on the Net. We were talking about C P Joshi, later this month he will be the 2nd Minister to use Mobile App user on Blackberry Phone of United Progressive Alliance after Finance Minister P Chidambram - to be a part of GOOGLE HANGOUT.
All other major political parties other than Trinsamool Congress have hired professionals to handle their social media and online strategy. For Trinamool Congress their rajya Sabha Member Derek O Brien and CM Mamta Banergj's nephew, Abhishek Banerji handles its social media.
Pankaj Pachauri is the current Communication Advisor to the Prime Minister;s Office. He feels that net is inevitable. Under his supervision, PMO has launched Twitter account. Now this account has 5,00,000 followers and gets all kind of suggestions and petitions.
Congress General secretary Digvijay Singh heads the party's sub group on social media. he feels that the trend of politicians using social media to promotd themselves will only grow. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy ises social media to reach out Global Malayalee community. In fact last week Chandy has got more than 70,000 suggestions on his facebook account. He also use Skype to address gatherings of NRIs.
The politicians who are now using social media are simply amazed with the speed at which they receive feedback. Many just do not have the time to keep a track of developments and feedback personally, one of the main reason they hire social media advisors.
Among the others, Narendra Modi is one of the very few pioneer politicians to use social media in his election campaign, he is among the top 5 politicians in India who harness the power of social media.
So it is not surprising that the tribe of politicians who harness power of social media is multiplying at a much much faster speed.
It is not very difficult to understand that why suddenly across all the political parties, there is a race to grab a social media advisor. The fact is that now people spend substantial time on social media and they form their opinion about politics and social issues based on What the read online.
Now who is this new breed of professional called social media advisors. There is certain broad characteristics that most of these professionals seems to share. Typically, they are in their late 20s or early 30s, and have a background in journalism or engineering - sometime both. Among other things, these advisors offer a mix of both - technical assistance and reputation management, they are constantly online to keep abreast of the latest developments.
Meet one of such advisor Avinash Kalla, 34 he looks after social media of C P Joshi, minister of road transport and highways. Kalla is an engineer, who has done a stint in journalism. Kalla dabbled in start ups before joining the minister last year when congress felt it better get a move on with its online presence. Elaborating his precise role Kalla says, that his job is not just to make sure the website of the ministry is getting traction but, more importantly, that feedback, queries, complaints and suggestions are not ignored.
The tipping point on the need for the political to address the broader online constituency probably came after the recent Jan Lokpal and Delhi Gang Rape agitations, in which social media platform played a critical role in mobilising mass movement.
With over 13 Crore users, India's internet population is one of the most fast growing population in the world. it is imperative for politician to have his presence on the Net. We were talking about C P Joshi, later this month he will be the 2nd Minister to use Mobile App user on Blackberry Phone of United Progressive Alliance after Finance Minister P Chidambram - to be a part of GOOGLE HANGOUT.
All other major political parties other than Trinsamool Congress have hired professionals to handle their social media and online strategy. For Trinamool Congress their rajya Sabha Member Derek O Brien and CM Mamta Banergj's nephew, Abhishek Banerji handles its social media.
Pankaj Pachauri is the current Communication Advisor to the Prime Minister;s Office. He feels that net is inevitable. Under his supervision, PMO has launched Twitter account. Now this account has 5,00,000 followers and gets all kind of suggestions and petitions.
Congress General secretary Digvijay Singh heads the party's sub group on social media. he feels that the trend of politicians using social media to promotd themselves will only grow. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy ises social media to reach out Global Malayalee community. In fact last week Chandy has got more than 70,000 suggestions on his facebook account. He also use Skype to address gatherings of NRIs.
The politicians who are now using social media are simply amazed with the speed at which they receive feedback. Many just do not have the time to keep a track of developments and feedback personally, one of the main reason they hire social media advisors.
Among the others, Narendra Modi is one of the very few pioneer politicians to use social media in his election campaign, he is among the top 5 politicians in India who harness the power of social media.
So it is not surprising that the tribe of politicians who harness power of social media is multiplying at a much much faster speed.
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