BACKGROUND:
Congress Social Media began as a genuine independent public response to well organised campaigns by opposition especially BJP. There were a few "cyber warriors" battling it all alone, facing all abuses, hoping that some day, Congress party would wake up to this medium. The #Feku Campaign (8th April 2013) & its top trending brought together a large number of congress volunteers & supporters on one platform. The power of volunteers & social media campaign was soon recognised by a few party leaders.
STRENGTHS:
1. The fact that Congress Social Media campaign initiated as a volunteer movement & not an organised paid campaign, gives it a lot of energy, appeal & freshness.
2. For Congress everything began as a clean slate. So all they have to do is gain. And in a span of 6 months, they have registered their suitable presence over this medium, which once used to be the domain of #BJP & to an extent of the new entrant #AAP. The media has also recognised Congress as a reasonable social media player & much has been written & published about various social media campaigns.
3. Various Congress volunteer teams have now learned the art of trending. On a given day they can pick up a suitable hashtag and they are able to spread the word around, many a times they get successful in trending it.
4. The Congress Social media campaign is not only managed by official teams of Congress party & its frontal organisations but a large number of volunteer teams & handles are also contributing to it.
5. Some of the party leaders like Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tiwari, Digvijay Singh, Shakeel Ahmed, Ajay Maken, Priya Dutt, Deepender Hooda, Milind Deora, Naveen Jindal etc. remain the torch bearers or brand ambasadors of this new media. Their tweets have not only helped them to interact with public, but has also helped them to stay in news, with media tracking their every movement, every tweet.
6. The Congress campaigns & volunteers are by and large appreciated by neutral public, media & more so females, for their being more dignified & not abusive, unlike many of the right wing tweeples on social media.
WEAKNESS:
1. The biggest youth icon of Congress party i.e. Rahul Gandhi is not on twitter, which not only tends to undermine the importance of this medium but is preventing the party leader to get connected to millions of youth, first time voters especially the neutral ones who are not linked through party cadres.
(An online petition has been recently created at
www.friendsofrahul.com to request Rahul Gandhi to be on twitter)
2. Many other prominent young leaders, MPs, Union Ministers & Chief Ministers have tried to remain away from the social media.
3. Though PMO & CMs of Rajasthan & Kerala are managing twitter accounts, but they are less interactive & more like press briefings. They may be informative but lack appeal.
4. The official accounts / websites of Congress Party either need a revamp or are at nascent stage in terms of content, design & following. Given the fact that it is the ruling party & is also in power in 14 states & have well defined frontal organisations like IYC, NSUI etc, the figures should be astronomical.
5. If you google names of prominent congress leaders or put them on twitter search bars, the amount of negative content outbeats the positive content. It means that the Congress teams are not able to block & act against the negative content however defamatory it may. This tends to demoralise the Congress volunteers as it shows some kind of weakness. Secondly, if negative cannot be removed it also shows lack of Congress teams to publish enough positive content which could dilute or outnumber the negatives.
OPPORTUNITIES:
1. Congress has already registered its presence when it remains at an initial stage. If the strengths can be properly channelised & the weakness highlighted above are improved,
Congress can go manifold on social media.
2. The
coming assembly elections in five assembly states like Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh, Mizoram can be a testing phase of the impact of social media.
3. Many of the Delhi MLAs have now created twitter accounts. However, Delhi CM & most of the Members of Parliament from Delhi should be on twitter. With a large amount of young, educated & working class, social media might have some
impact on Delhi. Both #BJP & #AAP are already aggressive on this medium.
4.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, Young Union Minister & incharge of Madhya Pradesh assembly campaign has launched his official twitter account (@Scindiaofficial) only today i.e. 2nd October, 2013. Hopefully, this account would be well utilised to connect with target voters from the state.
5. Congress should set up a press e-briefing centre for Social media, where whatever is the buzz on social media through out the day, is responded to, in form of a press release, replies and tweets. This would also help the volunteers & cyber warriors to defend the party on social media.
6. Congress media cell should develop some coordination between social media teams & spokespersons appearing on
TV debates. The two media & associated people should be well synchronised.
THREATS:
1. Credit Seekers remain the biggest problem in Congress. Since this new media remains the in-thing, many within the party, at all levels, irrespective of their capability & understanding would try to score brownie points, to seek credit or to hijack the campaign. Party needs to keep a check & keep them at a bay.
2. The whole campaign for Congress started as volunteer movement and there are still many volunteer groups / cells independently operating on social media. Party should refrain from directly or indirectly endorsing any particular volunteer group / cell. It would either demoralise the others or make them indifferent.
3. Congress campaign has largely been organic. But if tends to be a replica of BJP campaign managed by well organised teams directly / indirectly related to the party or managed through professional teams / agencies, it would lose the appeal, edge & spontaneity. So party run campaigns & volunteer movements should remain separate.
4. One of the recent campaigns like #BJPeed, initiated by a volunteer team, was not only in bad taste, but was in contradiction to the guidelines issues by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi at a recent workshop on social media. Whatever be the provocation, the congress campaign should remain clean & dignified. Congress leaders on social media should timely step in to regulate such campaigns. A wrong move would reflect more on party than the volunteer groups & would instantly shatter what took months to build.
5. Party should be careful in sharing platform with independent volunteers & cyber warriors or they should be prepared to own up the campaigns being run by them. Even when the umbilical cord is not visible, it is difficult to hide mother-child relation.
6. The official handles or IT cells of Congress or frontal organisations should be more interested in spread of party message rather than seeking credit. An official state unit twitter account recently sent us a message that we should only retweet their messages or not use them at all. What is more important - the message from a state cell or due credit.
Please Note:
1. The above blog should be seen only as a fair & genuine assessment & not a criticism.
2. Friends of Congress has no affiliation to Congress Party.
3. Friends of Congress is an independent network of Friends & Well Wishers of Congress.
6. Follow us at Twitter: @friendscongress
7. Like our Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/friendscongress
8. To be our coordinator apply www.friendsofcongress.com
9. Our email: friendsofcongress@gmail.com
