Online war hots up as parties fight it out in the web to woo voters

Experts say although political campaigning on social media stands to benefit the parties in influencing their potential vote bank, its range small

As campaigning for the Lok Sabha battle hots up, political parties are making all out efforts to woo voters in the online space -- from blogs by senior leaders, spoofs on famous faces to hangouts with decision makers or celebrity endorsements.

But will the battle being fought on myriad social networking sites and other online platforms translate into votes? Do your 'likes' and 'shares' ensure that you would vote for a particular party?

Experts feel that although political campaigning on social media stands to benefit the parties in influencing their potential vote bank, its range and reach is restricted to a small audience.

"Social media is a legitimate tool of persuasion. It helps build a personal rapport, may be, more effective than door-to- door campaigning. In the information age, political parties today need to flex 'electronic muscle' along with money and might," says Professor Deepak Kumar, chairperson of Centre for Media Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

He says though middle class urban voters may be influenced by online political campaigning, a sizeable number of people will cast their votes based on local issues.

"These online campaigns cannot reach the people in the rural belt of the country owing to the digital divide," Kumar pointed out.

A study conducted by media think-tank, Centre for Media Studies (CMS), on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, speaks of the strong influence of social networking sites on young voters.

"Though young voters are moving to new media to get information about candidates, they do not consider it to be the only source. The social media marketers are still struggling to gauge whether 'likes and shares' are actually translating into action, i.E. Votes," says PN Vasanti, director of CMS.

She picked a few examples of intelligent media use which she said she came across during the course of the survey.

"Aam Aadmi Party scored well with the social media. Armed with a group of techies, the party collected maximum donations via this media. AAP leader Yogendra Yadav recently announced that anyone can fix an appointment online with him," Vasanti says.