Find out how leading Indian politicians are leveraging Facebook

1. Politicians on Facebook
How are Indian Politicians faring on Facebook?

2. INTRODUCTION
• Facebook is the most popular social network amongst Indians, the network has seen a
lot of traction from politicians and political parties in the past one year or so.
• A staggering population of over 80 million users in India and predictions doing rounds
that 160 out of 543 constituencies in the Indian General Elections 2014 are likely to be
influenced by Social Media users specifically Facebook.
• As a result, many political leaders from major political parties are now on Facebook;
focusing on community building, user engagement and tangible voter conversions.
• How are these politicians faring on Facebook ? Is it a case of ‘Too Little Too Late or
have they managed to join ‘Just In Time’
• Let’s dig in deeper, gain insights on the Facebook presence of key politicians in India.
INTRODUCTION

3. • Narendra Modi has the strongest presence on Facebook with over 13 mn fans
• Arvind Kejriwal is the second most popular politician on Facebook after Narendra Modi
• Smriti Irani from BJP records the maximum engagement as % of Fans followed by
Digvijaya Singh from Congress and Yogendra Yadav from AAP
• In terms of Total Engagement Narendra Modi leads the race , followed by Smriti Irani
and Arvind Kejriwal.
• Barring Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal, most of the politicians haven’t even
crossed the half a million mark in terms of number of fans on their Facebook Page.
KEY FINDINGS IN THIS REPORT

4. Politicians on Facebook
• A quick look at Facebook Pages of these major politicians suggests that most of them are
still struggling with community building while very few of them manage to engage with
users to gain tangible conversions.
• Apart from Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and a few others most of them lack a clearly
defined strategy. While they have a decent fan following on the network, there is no
sustained effort from their side to leverage Facebook to the best of its potential.
• Those with a decent fan following don’t work on engagement and those with a fairly low
fan count don’t care about community building.
• This exemplifies that Facebook presence is more of a formality than an active gesture, a
half hearted attempt to show their presence on youth’s most preferred social network.

5. Fan Count for Politicians on Facebook
Narendra Modi is way ahead in the race followed by Arvind Kejriwal & Arun Jaitley

6. Engagement for Politicians on Facebook
Narendra Modi is the clear leader followed by Smriti Irani & Arvind Kejriwal. In terms of
engagement as % of fans Smriti Irani leads all the way followed by Digvijaya Singh

7. • Narendra Modi is the most popular Indian politician on Facebook
• With several innovative campaigns and a well defined content strategy on
Facebook. He has the highest number of fans and manages to get the highest
Total Engagement
Narendra Modi on Facebook
Total Fans 13829792
Total Engagement 240005
Engagement Rate 1.73%
Daily Posts 5-6

8. Posts By Narendra Modi
Judicious Mix of Posts include rally/campaign coverage, criticizing opposition, greetings and testimonials

9. • This revolutionary politician has been leading Aam Aadmi Party by example with
over 5 mn fans, Arvind Kejriwal is the second most popular leader on Facebook.
• With campaigns based on transparency and openness he managed to create a
greater impact and has brought about an inclusion of youth in politics.
Arvind Kejriwal on Facebook
Total Fans 5366426
Total Engagement 50142
Engagement Rate 0.9%
Daily Posts 4-5

10. Posts By Arvind Kejriwal
Posts focus on campaign trail, alleging Congress-BJP for corruption & reporting incidences of violence

11. • One of the early adopters of Social Media from Congress, Shashi Tharoor is the
Minister of State for Human Resource Development.
• He is the voice of Congress on Facebook/Twitter and holds a very good command
on content. His Twitter account is linked with Facebook for ease of dissemination.
Shashi Tharoor on Facebook
Total Fans 206104
Total Engagement 457
Engagement Rate 0.26%
Daily Posts 2-3

12. Posts By Shashi Tharoor
Variety of content includes campaign trails, news articles, excerpts from Sonia and Rahul Gandhi

13. • BJP’s female fire power contesting against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi. Smriti Irani
has been the party’s voice for television debates on Gujarat Model of Development
• She records the highest engagement % of fans and posts content at frequency of
7-8 posts per day on a regular basis.
Smriti Irani on Facebook
Total Fans 662544
Total Engagement 71561
Engagement Rate 10.77%
Daily Posts 7-8

14. Posts By Smriti Irani
Most of the posts revolve around her campaign in Amethi and criticism of Congress and Gandhi
Family

15. • A great value addition to the team AAP, Psephologist Yogendra Yadav is one of the
most influential politicians in the recent times.
• He records good amount of engagement on posts owing to his characteristic style
of writing coupled up with unbiased facts and figures.
Total Fans 322272
Total Engagement 5459
Engagement Rate 1.69%
Daily Posts 3-4
Yogendra Yadav on Facebook

16. Posts By Yogendra Yadav
Posts focus on campaign trails, attacks on Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi & sharing crowd-sourced content

17. • A frontline politician, Digvijaya Singh currently serves the office of General
Secretary of the Indian National Congress.
• His flamboyance, hard hitting criticism and forthright attitude keeps him in the
news and makes him the soft target for anti-campaigns on social media.
Total Fans 228841
Total Engagement 6815
Engagement Rate 2.98%
Daily Post 3-4
Digvijaya Singh on Facebook

18. Posts By Digvijaya Singh
Posts include views on critical issues, testimonials for leaders, mocking oppositions’ claims & campaigns

19. • Arun Jaitley is the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. One of the senior
most leaders in BJP. He enjoys a very high engagement rate as % of fans.
• He has been resilient enough to adapt to the medium and the recent trends
Total Fans 762263
Total Engagement 14011
Engagement Rate 1.84%
Daily Posts 3-4
Arun Jaitley on Facebook

20. Posts By Arun Jaitley
Posts include campaign diaries, greetings, news articles and request to like Arun Jaitley for Amritsar page

21. • Sharad Pawar is the president of Nationalist Congress Party & Union Minister of
Agriculture. He has also served as the Chairman of the (BCCI) and in 2010,
become the president of the International Cricket Council (ICC)
• Pawar is a fairly recent entrant on Facebook as with his verified account having
been initiated just months ago its just a modest beginning for him on the platform
Total Fans 118262
Total Engagement 2125
Engagement Rate 1.8%
Daily Posts 1
Sharad Pawar on Facebook

22. Posts By Sharad Pawar
Multilingual posts on election campaigning, rallies, views on current issues of political importance

23. • Akhilesh Yadav is the youngest person to hold the office of Chief Minister. An
active member of the Samajwadi Party he carries forward the legacy of Mulayam
Singh Yadav in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
• One of the few early adopters to social media since 2012 , he utilizes the medium
pretty well and has a decent presence on Facebook
Total Fans 536129
Total Engagement 7683
Engagement Rate 1.43%
Daily Posts 1-2
Akhilesh Yadav on Facebook

24. Posts By Akhilesh Yadav
Most of his posts cover campaign trails, achievements in UP and scathing attacks on Narendra Modi

25. • Lawyer, author, MP, member of several prolific panels, Kapil Sibal is the Minister of
Communications and Information Technology and Minister of Law and Justice.
• Sibal has always had a fairly resonant voice in the media sphere but surprisingly
he has a very average presence on Facebook
Total Fans 34604
Total Engagement 465
Engagement Rate 1.31%
Daily Posts 1
Kapil Sibal on Facebook

26. Posts By Kapil Sibal
His posts include various activities, campaign trails, information about events, interviews and some poetry

27. REPORT BY – SOCIAL SAMOSA