Social Media as Battlefields ?

 

Context :

In Gujarat, social media has turned into the latest poll battlefields            /  ET  /  27 Nov 2022

Extract :

A group of digital marketing students is on a tea break after hours of deftly manoeuvring a social media campaign against AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal's Amreli rally.

"Every such break prepares us for our next move," said one of the students, sipping from her cup. She works as a volunteer at the BJP's social media war room in Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat. Assembly polls are due in the state early next month.

The BJP has a centralised social media war room team that works round the clock

"We have made this social media war room at the BJP Media Centre, especially for the elections, where more than 100 social media warriors (volunteers) and more than 10,000 'karyakartas' are working across Gujarat," said Pankaj Shukla, the BJP's state social media incharge and IT head.

"Overall, the BJP has 10,000 workers and 50,000 digital warriors working round the clock to disseminate the party's prachar-prasar (propaganda)."

The team creates and shares content with 50,000 WhatsApp groups each with 150-200 members.

To why social media has become such an important tool, Shukla said: "Every person spends the entire day on the phone. Hum mobile se logo ke mann tak jane ki koshish karte hai (we try to reach a voter's heart through mobile phones)."

From key takeaways of rallies to the campaigns of the BJP leaders, the team shares it all on WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For instance, as part of the party's key "Bhajapa aetle Bharosa (BJP means trust)" campaign, they are running several sub-campaigns that send out the message that the party stands for "protection of mothers and sisters", peace, countering terrorism, good governance, "ghar-ghar Narmada", and "vikas", or progress.

The work has been distributed zone- and district-wise, with three key teams working on content, counter and distribution.

On how they counter negative campaigns or attacks by the opposition parties, Shukla said: "We keep a keen watch and immediately run a counter attack, presenting counter facts and data to clarify or corroborate our point."

The war room in Ahmedabad complements the one at the party's state headquarters at Sri Kamalam, in Gandhinagar. "Every day we run one hashtag  that trends for the day “, Shukla said

 

On whether the BJP is wary of AAP's high-pitched campaigns, including on social media, she said: "Their campaign has fizzled out, especially since the point our leaders hit the ground running with real promises and assurances."

The war room's strategy for the day hinges on the trending topics. It counters the Opposition with videos and memes that are shared on the social media platforms.

Every content created here trickles down to the zones, districts, the Vidhan Sabha and, eventually, to each mandal in the state.

Shukla said the basis of any campaign is the actual work on the ground, "on which the BJP clearly has an edge".

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Dear Pankaj Shukla

 

( write2pankajshukla@gmail.com / bjphqo@gmail.com / centraloffice@bjp.org / webmaster@bjp.org )

 

Congratulations on putting into place your :

 

Ø  fantastic ELECTION  CAMPAIGN  ORGANIZATION

Ø  admirable LEVERAGING of SOCIAL MEDIA

 

The news article quoted above is more than 10 weeks old

 

Since then, the “ Rules of Election Campaigning “ have completely changed with the arrival of ChatGPT – which , for the moment, appears to reign supreme

 

May be, you have wondered :

 

“ How can I enable hundreds of BJP Netas to reach out to :

 

Ø  hundreds of cities / towns

Ø  lakhs of Voters

 

And engage in “ ONE – to – ONE “ conversation with these lakhs of voters , SIMULTANEOUSLY , in REAL TIME ?

 

And do this without leaving their chairs ? “

 

Dear Shuklaji,

 

Now ask yourself :

“ How can I leverage ARTIFICIAL  INTELLIGENCE to create for Shri Modiji , a DIGITAL AVATAR , with which millions can interact online , ask any question re : Reforms – Benefits – Schemes – Initiatives – Projects – Vikas etc ., - and get perfectly RELEVANT answers , in Shri Modiji’s OWN VOICE ? “

For your answer, please visit my Digital Avatar   www.hemenparekh.ai

Then ask any question

In case you need any clarification, do not hesitate to phone me on ( M ) 98,67,55,08,08

 

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

hcp@RecruitGuru.com