This document discusses social media and political communication. Social media allows for both intra-party communication through tools like groups and pages, as well as communication with the public to introduce policies, encourage voting, and campaign for donations or membership. While social media is free and easy to use, it also has weaknesses like clicktivism and the spread of misinformation. Best practices for political use of social media include building a following early over time, creating meaningful agendas and representatives for people to engage with, and fostering human connections to avoid coming across as robotic.

1. Social Media
for Political
Communication
Ujjwal Acharya
Social Media Research Fellow
Center for Media Research - Nepal

3. Our
discussion
today
Social media & political communication
Social media for political communication
● Intra-party communication
● Communication with public
Weaknesses of social media for political
communication
Best practices
Questions and answers

4. Political
communication

5. So what exactly
is political
communication?
All forms of
communication
undertaken by
politicians and parties
for achieving specific
objectives.

6. Objectives and
audiences
Inform: Cadres / citizens
Educate: Cadres
Mobilize: Cadres
Defend: Cadres / citizens
Campaign: Citizens / voters
Encourage: Citizens / voters /
opponents

7. Why political
communication?
Public opinion is a
constructed,
manufactured thing,
which could be shaped
and manipulated by
those with an interest
in doing so.
- Walter Lippmann 1922

8. Why political
communication?
- Political message
- Alignment
- Trust building
- Hope building
- VOTE
- Membership

9. Social media

10. So what exactly
is social media?
All internet tools/platforms:
1. Allows immediate publishing
2. Allows networking
3. Allows engagement
4. Gives control of contents to
the content creators
5. No moderation

11. Why social
media?
1. It’s free.
2. It’s easy.
3. It’s global.
4. It’s where your audience are.
5. It’s where people are shaping
their opinions.
6. Because it can create
meaningful impact through
you communication.

12. 1SocS
Why social
media?
Nepali Facebook Users
Nepali Twitter Users

13. Intra-party
communication

14. Social media for
intra-party
communication
- Groups
- Pages
- List-servs
As opposed to
newsletters, letters,
phone calls and emails.

15. Objectives of
intra-party
communication
Inform: activities and decisions
Educate: policies and stances
Defend: policies, stances and
decisions
Mobilize: activities

16. Communication
with public
Introduce: faces and principles
Inform: policies, stances and
decisions
Defend: Policies, stances,
decisions, leaders and party
Campaign: Donation,
membership and election
Encourage: Voting

17. ENGAGEMENT
The golden rule of social media

18. Engagement
Social media is all
about engagement:
1. Say
2. Hear
3. Respond
4. Hear again
5. Respond again,
again and again

19. Weaknesses of
social media

20. Clicktivism Your followers is NOT
equal to your voters!
Your followers is NOT
equal to your
sympathizers!
Easy to click, hard to act!

21. Trolls, fake news
and
disinformation
Overall, harmful to democracy
through could be helpful for
short term gains.

22. Echo Chamber

23. Best Practices
Learning from the good

24. Build early
It takes time on social
media:
1. To gain followers
2. To create impact
3. To be trustworthy
4. It’s not elections-
only thing.

25. Create agendas
and icons
Agendas are what people
talk about.
Icons are what people
look at with hope.

26. Connect Human connections are
something that people
value!
Be human, not robots.

28. Questions?
@UjjwalAcharya | @KANepal
ujjwal.acharya@gmail.com