Influencer show: How important are social media personalities in elections?

The evolving relation between social media personalities and the political landscape continues to intrigue and challenge the norms of electoral engagement, Aditi Phadnis explains

“The Congress party has never paid any individual to do any interviews. We pick up voices, sound bites of common people. That’s what is reflected on our social media handle. We don’t pay influencers to interview us. We don’t organise conclaves with digital creators so that we can influence their pattern of thinking. That’s not who we are, that’s not something that we do,” said Supriya Shrinate, chairman of Social Media and Digital Platforms of the party.
 

She was referring to the first ever National Creators Award, given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in March, to digital content creators. The government says the winners were “selected” by a jury from among 150,000 nominations, followed by voting. But marketing agencies that have a database of influencers say they got no intimation that such awards were going to be given out. “The content they (the award winners) generate is broadly supportive of the policies of the government,” said a market source.
 

Ranveer Allahbadia, who runs a YouTube channel called BeerBicepsGuy, has 500,000 followers on X and has interviewed several Union Ministers in the recent past, got the “Disruptor of the Year” award. At the function, he told Modi: “Aapke saath podcast karne ka mood ho raha hai (I feel like making a podcast with you).” The Prime Minister advised him to flag the importance of sleep in his future shows.

 

Allahbadia claims to tweet about growth, health and general self-improvement. He podcasts on Spotify via a show called The Ranveer Show (TRS). A recent episode was a debate on “The Truth About Hindu vs Muslim”. He gets 450 million views, he says.
 

People like Allahbadia are a valuable asset for social influencer marketing agencies. Conventional advertisements of parties are scrutinised by the Media Certificate and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) of the Election Commission of India. The committee checks if the content is compliant with the Model Code of Conduct and also seeks the cost of production.
 

But influencers craft content that feels personal, almost like a friend sharing a view, skirting the formal scrutiny. This unique space, only lightly covered by the strictures of official oversight, gained another layer of complexity last year with the introduction of new guidelines by the Advertising Standards Council of India. As these rules await their real test, the evolving relation between social media personalities and the political landscape continues to intrigue and challenge the norms of electoral engagement.
 

Over the past several years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come to dominate the social media influencer space, says the chief executive officer (CEO) of a major social media and digital marketing agency. This time around, the party has decentralised its outreach. In Uttar Pradesh, BJP sources say, 1,920 social media influencers will be roped in ahead of the 2024 election campaign. The Maharashtra unit of the party hosted a conclave of influencers in Nagpur in 2023 where strategies for 2024 were discussed. “We’re in touch with social influencers in the Christian laity in Kerala who can inform the electoral debate,” said Tom Vadakkan, spokesperson for the BJP and coordinator for the party’s south India media strategy.

“Anyone who has a smartphone is getting (the influencers’) content, either as subscribers or forwards,” said Joyojeet Pal, an associate professor at the University of Michigan. “Nano- and micro-influencers are people you rely on. This person speaks your dialect, refers to local metaphors, and you trust them. There is a high chance you bump into them in your town.”
 

Shudeep Majumdar, co-founder and CEO of Zefmo Media, said his company had connections with some of the most sought-after influencers in the industry. He described a 2018 campaign. “I recall how we leveraged our extensive network to engage with diverse content creators. Among them was an individual who, while running a small paan shop, also shared his creativity online. We saw an opportunity to empower him and others like him to foster a community of hyper-local content creators. Our approach was to provide incentives, ensuring their efforts were recognised and rewarded appropriately. It’s important to note that our role was to facilitate the campaign’s objectives, set forth by our clients, in a manner that was transparent and aligned with all regulatory guidelines. This experience highlighted the power of grassroots engagement, enabling voices from all walks of life to contribute to a larger narrative.”

Today, not just the BJP, other national political parties as well as regional outfits are using social media influencers. This is not limited to election campaigning. In September 2023, the Rajasthan government, then headed by Ashok Gehlot of the Congress, gave public funds (ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 5 lakh) to internet influencers to speak about the schemes launched by his government. The message that people should vote for Gehlot and the Congress was subtle and subliminal. Said Shrinate: “You are mixing up two big issues here. When a policy comes out, you have brand ambassadors. What the Rajasthan government did was: Instead of getting the big-ticket Bollywood brand ambassadors, they got local digital content creators to become brand ambassadors. That’s very different from political parties like the BJP, putting these guys who create content on their payrolls”.

 

Majumdar highlighted the universal appeal of social influencers across the political spectrum, targeting the young demographic, particularly those aged 16-25, with a notable emphasis on male voters. However, he anticipated a significant shift by 2029. “The rapid advancement in AI (artificial intelligence) technology is poised to transform the landscape. There’s likely to be a surge in AI-generated content, which could reduce reliance on agencies and herald an era where influencers are increasingly powered by AI.”