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Role of Technology vis-à-vis Electoral Campaigning

The Scenario of 2014 General Elections of India

-Kartikey Gupta2012BBA025

Table of Contents1. ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................................3

2. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................4

3. THE SOCIAL MEDIA............................................................................................................................5

But what exactly is SOCIAL MEDIA?.....................................................................................................6

Social Networking Sites...........................................................................................................................6

General Elections 2014.........................................................................................................................10

NaMo- The Pied Piper of Social Media.................................................................................................12

The BRAND NaMo................................................................................................................................14

4. MOBILE TECHNOLOGY....................................................................................................................18

5. TELEVISION AND RALLIES.............................................................................................................24

6. CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................26

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................................27

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1. ABSTRACT

Technology has been playing a major role in the election campaigning since long. Today it has

taken the form of Social media forums like Facebook, Twitter, which are opinion, based websites

and hence are highly popular amongst today’s youth. Moreover devices like mobile phones come

in the form of Smartphones, which have various apps which are related to electoral campaigning.

TV’s, Rally broadcasting, advertising etc. have revolutionized. All this have one thing in

common, i.e. technology. This piece of scratch in the form of paper talks about various forms of

technology that are being used in the current general election of 2014, and what impact is it

having on various political parties and their candidates.

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2. INTRODUCTION

A new season is on its way in India. The season, which comes after every five years, which is not

marked by rains or shivering or any such thing, but is rather recognized by the India’s future, the

testing stone for every politician in India. That’s right, the season of Elections. This is the time

for which every politician waits and avoids at the same time, because it is this time when he has

to give his real test and the report card comes, based on his performance, from the public.

General Elections in India are in full throttle, and every political party is busy in making the best

of the strategy to influence the voters and win their hearts by various schemes and gift. In such a

situation, one thing is inevitable, without which they cannot stand in this modern period. It is the

technology, the life, the essence of today’s world, is also the life and essence of politicians at the

time of Elections. More than what and how a politician is, it is the technology and how well it is

used, that paints the picture of the politician at the time of elections. Thus, technology becomes

one of the most important features of election and especially electoral campaigning. Technology,

in the form of social media, television, mobiles, internet etc. help the politicians promote them in

every manner. This helps create a new political dialogue. Taking away the power of political

messaging, the forums like social media, mobiles, and etc. help creating a peer-to-peer relation

among the voters. The technology has given the mediums like social network, mobiles, TV’s etc,

which lets not only politicians connect to people, but more importantly people connect to people.

This helps in creating opinions, which forms the opinion of the masses, and the one who

advocates such an opinion and favors it, is favored by the mass. The youth forming a major

portion of our country’s population, has made social media and mobiles as their best friends.

That’s why politicians are making use of such a technology to connect to a large number of

youth, who are now politically and constitutionally aware of their voting rights, and are

becoming aware that who is right for them and who is not, because the youth today represents

modern and growing India, which is rational, logical and scientific, unlike the old India, who

were mostly guided by emotions, and were thus easily fooled. Realizing such a grave importance

of technology and media, the election commission issued an instruction notice with respect to the

guidelines as to the use of social media in election campaigning1. Below will be given a detailed

1 Instructions of the Commission with respect to use of Social Media inElection Campaigning, Election commission of India, available at, http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/SocialMedia_CI25102013.pdf (official reports)

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analysis as to how the various forms of technology are helping in electoral campaigning with

pursuant to the guidelines by the Election commission.

3. THE SOCIAL MEDIA

The whole world today is on social media, and so it is represented, judged and created by the

social media. Some have said that social media is the best example to show how the world is

created by the people and for the people. This virtual world of social media is becoming more

real than the actual world. People spend a great deal time in front of laptops, in the mobiles,

surfing the internet, interacting from one to another about the contemporary and personal issues,

problems, their solutions. The whole world has got connected with the bond known as internet,

and a big medium is social media. The human psychology says that whatever the world says has

some or the other impact on an individual, either bad or good, but it does have, and living in a

society this impact on an individual has an impact on everyone I the society through a chain.

This chain, this loop promotes a thinking process, which influences everyone on every part of the

world. And all this is not a matter of days. The technology today has grown so advanced, that it

only takes few minutes, and the world has opined something about a particular event that has

happened a few moments ago2. The Political sphere is not untouched by this. Infact some say

that it is amongst the most discussed subject in the social media, because, obviously, it directly

affects the lives of the people3. Elliott Schrage, vice president for communications and public

policy at Facebook, threw light on how swiftly the social media has become one of the most

important components of our life. He said that when he joined Facebook five years ago, it was

seen as “this silly tool where people would poke each other and throw sheep. I distinctly

remember being part of conversations where we would say, ‘We think these technologies of

connection, not just Facebook, are creating a revolution.’ And people would laugh.” But people

have stopped taking social media lightly, when, he pointed, it played a big role in the creation of

Arab spring. Since then, he said, social media have proven to be successful in a variety of ways,

2Auli Maharani, How Strongly Can Social Media Influence and Control People’s Lives?, available at http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/how-strongly-can-social-media-influence-and-control-people-s-lives- (news article)3 Suomen Tovio, Social Media - The New Power Of Political Influence, available at, http://thinkingeurope.eu/sites/default/files/publication-files/kansio-digital_democracy_-_final_en.pdf (other reports)

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including the improvement of communication between individuals and groups and the

achievement of public-health goals.4

But what exactly is SOCIAL MEDIA? “Social Media is the biggest shift since the industrial revolution” says Eric Qualman,

Socialnomics. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Heinlein define social media as "a group of Internet-

based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and

that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Social media is ubiquitously

accessible, and enabled by ascendable communication techniques.5 Today Government 2.0 is

seldom used to illustrate how social media is changing the relationship between government

institutions and citizens. Citizens and service users are increasingly expecting more open

government and a greater say in how things happen in the place where they live and are probably

already discussing your local issues online. Government 2.0 refers to open data to make

government more transparent and accountable and the uses of social media tools to engage in

those conversations, shape policy, support local democracy and improve services6. Thus, today

social media is not only scrutinizing the acts of govt. but also playing the biggest role in selection

of the govt. This aspect of the social media, that how this technology of social media is helping

in the electoral campaigning, promoting, assessing and selecting the appropriate candidate the

public feels, will be explained in this section. How social media has impacted previously and is

currently acting as the biggest advertising agencies for the political parties in pursuant to the

general election of 2014 will be the main focus of the section.

Social Networking SitesThe most trending and most popular among the social media technology are social networking

sites. A social networking site consists of a representation of each user or a profile, his social

links, and a variety of additional services7. Some of the most popular social networking websites

today are Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. These websites have a huge popularity, not only

among youths, but people of all age groups. These have become a major political and an

4 Dick Dahl, Experts explore how social networks can influence behavior and decision-making, available at http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/intellectual-property/experts-explore-influence-of-social-networks.html (blog)5 Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein Michael (2010). "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media". Business Horizons 53 (1). p. 61.(articles)6 Meetika Shrivastava, Social Media And Its Use By The Government, available at http://paconnect.unpan.org/profiles/blogs/social-media-and-its-use-by-the-government?xg_source=activity(blog)7 Social network, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service (other internet sources)

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influential factor in the elections too. It has now been regarded as the biggest vote bank generator

and it is apparent because of the advantages it carries. Some of the key benefits of using social

media include:

i. Youth voters are tapped in large numbers.

ii. Analyzing the voting trends and tactically improving the party’s image.

iii. Understanding & addressing the popular issues being discussed.

iv. Highlighting the party’s or party leader’s good policy measures, work portfolio and

developmental activities.

v. Providing access to vital information relating to a party & its candidates.

vi. Online polls and debates help in compiling voter issues and a party’s ratings/standings.8

The best example of use of social networking sites was seen by US President Barrack Obama in

2012 presidential elections in USA. He just knew the game. He knew that to woo the voters mind

one need to understand their psychology. He knew that an effective social media campaign is

based on the psychology of the social behaviors and not the current technology. He had an

outstanding technology team with him, which let him use and understand the intricacies of social

media. In 2008 Presidential elections, Obama had a tech-savvy team, who made use of the then

social media, the time when Twitter had just started and Facebook was not very prominent. But

with the use of the limited technology available at that time, Obama created a social-media

impact and won the elections against McCain, whose campaign was a social-media-deaf

campaign.9 Like John F. Kennedy was the first president who really understood television,

Obama was the first social media President. In 2012, Obama not only had an outstanding

expertise on his team, he had an established social media machine up and running.  Social media

is all about relationships, and having an advantage, start building those social connections in a

distinct manner10. Where Obama spent a whooping amount of $47m, Romney spent a meager

8 Social media and its viability in election campaigning, Model Governance, available at, http://modelgovernance.com/social-media-its-viability-in-election-campaigning/ (news article)9 2012-The social media election?, Laurence Cruz, available at http://newsroom.cisco.com/feature/1006785/2012-The-Social-Media-Election-10Social Media’s Role in the 2012 US Election: Obama Breaks Twitter Records, Matt Foulger, available at http://blog.hootsuite.com/election-tracker-results/ (news article)

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amount of $ 4.7m. While the Romney’s campaign was not left in the dust as McCain’s had been,

they did not achieve the grip what Obama did. He knew that the actual power vested in engaging

the user as measured by the content spread ability and not by the number of posts and tweets. For

example, Obama got twice as many Facebook “Likes” and almost 20 times as many re-tweets as

Romney. Obama, thus, had a far more reach than Romney, because he made apt use of the

existing social media.11

The use of social networking sites by Obama in election campaigning, made a dramatic impact

on the election campaigning all over the world and Facebook, Twitter became the major voter

banks. The same trend was followed in countries like UK, Canada, and India etc.12 when we talk

about India, the first and the most foremost picture of a successful Social media campaign that

flashes in our mind is Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party or AAP. The party made a

sensational debut in the field of politics, and made such a huge impact, that in its debut elections,

it succeeded in forming the govt. And the reason for its phenomenal success was Social media. It

was first time in the history of Indian politics, that a party realized the true value of social media

and made an effective and efficient use of it. Although AAP was concentrated in the Delhi only,

but its whole India felt its impact and was carried away by the revolution it created.

AAP had a coordinated, though not much experienced, but a young and an enthusiastic technical

team, who understood the impact of social media in electoral campaigning and was aware of the

mark that Obama left in the general elections of US. It did not rely much on the conventional and

traditional media campaigning to reach to voters, rather placed much reliance and emphasis on

social media. This team developed a model, through which it let the common man from all over

the country participate in the campaign. Contributions from such people in form of posts and

videos played a major part in the party’s campaign. The videos were broadcasted through social

media. The diverse background of the volunteers was also apparent in their videos13. Many

worked exclusively on videos to improve the quality and finesse. Not only this, but when the

11 How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign, Pamela Routledge, available at, http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/25/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/ (Blog) 12 Meetika Shrivastava, Social Media And Its Use By The Government ,available at, http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jpag/article/viewFile/3978/3308 (article)13 Nitish Kanal, Social media playing a big role in AAP’s popularity, available at, http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/social-networking-playing-a-big-role-in-aaps-popularity-in-india-206969.html (blog)

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Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, objected to the party’s funding scheme, some volunteers

from the USA sent a video, which was quite popular on social media.

The social media campaign successfully attracted the novice voters, who were not really

associated with any party. AAP not only contacted, reached to them, but also secured their votes,

and owed its success to social media. To attract youth from various fields, it knocked the

different college gates, making volunteers and campaigning through Facebook groups and pages.

The party placed its focus more on the local issues, rather than targeting opposition parties and

their leaders. The social media constantly contacted the major leaders of the party, on the hot

topics which needed focus on the social media14. Arvind Kejriwal, the promoter of AAP, has

always had an image of more of a whistleblower, than a politician, and he got ample support to

prove himself from social media. Once he was able to show the country his arguments and truth

behind it, people started associating with it15.  The party used the hashtag to promote its

achievements. Within minutes, the hastags #AAPExposedRobertVadra and

#AAPExposedNitinGadkari were trending on Twitter16. Like Obama, Kejriwal also used Google

hangout, to connect to the people.

The party had such an impact on the minds of the people that more and more desired to be

associated with the party. The more the members associated, the more innovative ideas started

coming. People started wanting the name of AAP to be associated with them, and so many

changed their wi-fi and Bluetooth name to AAP and many changed their username of e-mail to

include AAP. The brand Kejriwal became so popular even after the elections that Facebook

pages by the name of Yo Kejriwal is so honest! Spread all over the Facebook like a wildfire.

Today, he is the chief minister of Delhi, and is highly trendy in Social networking websites. As

per stats, AAP’s Facebook page has about 861,000 likes and is seeing about 67,000 new likes

daily and a total of 1, 137, and 873 likes on Facebook17. Thus it is crystal clear that social media

14 CNN-IBN, AAP follows Obama's campaign strategy for Delhi polls, available at http://ibnlive.in.com/news/aap-follows-obamas-campaign-strategy-for-delhi-polls/432316-80-258.html (news article)15 Slugpost, AAP and its social media engineering in Delhi elections, available at, http://slugpost.com/2013/12/08/aap-social-media-engineering-delhi-elections/ (news article)16 Mohammed Ali, AAP took baby steps on social media, now it’s a runway hit, available at, http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/aap-took-baby-steps-on-social-media-now-its-a-runaway-hit/article5190122.ece (News article)17 Mahima Kaul, India: Social media finally has its campaign in the sun, available at,  http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2014/01/social-media-finally-has-its-campaign-in-the-sun/ (news article)

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technology played a massive role in the influencing the voters, and was successfully used by

them, unlike its oppositions BJP and Congress, who were unable to make a big impact through

social media18.

General Elections 2014India is heading towards it’s another general elections in 2014, where another govt. will be

formed, where the fate of many big fates of Indian Politics will be decided, where the parties

who have been in big controversies will brought to heels, because it’s about the power of the

Indian legislature, the one seat for which every politician aspires, and is ready to do from the

blank cheque, the balancing act of quenching the needs of every community and person from

different spheres in Indian Territory. Come what may, every single competitor is trying it’s best

to win over the minds of the people of India. In such a heated and exciting situation, every party

and every candidate is going to try to the best of their ability to persuade the voter’s mind, and

touch their nerve, try being empathetic to them by criticizing the opposition, not losing a chance

to make the mountain out of a mole hill of a weakness and negative point of the opposition, and

constantly trying to exaggerate and overemphasize their aces. In such a situation, the politicians

and the party, when they are trying to reach out to every voters mind, are taking the support of

the modern technology, and the best medium to reach out to them is Media, particularly, social

media and social networking sites, as that is sought as the best option to reach every individual

individually, and hence it is correctly being expected to act as a mouthpiece and amplification

device for political parties ahead of the upcoming elections19. With more than 114.8 million

facebook users20, and more than 35.0 million21 twitter users, India today is one of the most

socially active countries of the world, and politicians have aptly understood how to take

advantage of this sunshine during the election season22. Gone are the days, when parties used to

primarily focus on the tele-media or radios for their promotion. With changing technology, the

18Shambhavi Anand, AAP plans to use successful advertisement strategy of Delhi assembly elections in 2014 polls,available at, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-09/news/46030374_1_aam-aadmi-party-delhi-assembly-elections-delhi-polls (news artcl)19 Supra 820 Uttara Choudhary, India poised to overtake US as Facebook’s No 1 market, available at, http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/india-poised-to-overtake-us-as-facebooks-no-1-market-215873.html (news artc)21 Victor Lipman, The world’s most active Twitter Country, available at, http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/05/01/the-worlds-most-active-twitter-country-hint-its-citizens-cant-use-twitter/ (news artc)22Nidhi Verma, Interview: Modi a bloated figure: Virappa Moily, available at, http://blogs.reuters.com/india/tag/elections-2014/ (news art)

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promotion technique has also changed. The new trend is Social media, the new gateway to reach

people’s heart is social media, and the way to get you popular is facebook and voice your

opinion is twitter. As shown earlier, how this awesome technology has been used in US

presidential elections in 2012 and in India by the rising star of Indian Politics, Arvind Kejriwal

and his party AAP has made effectively. This section will focus on the role of social networking

sites in the big game, i.e. General Elections 2014.

Politicians realized the value of social networking sites, and are seeing it as an asset to their

promotion. They are taking the help of different agencies and have formed their own technology

team to help them out to interact and connect to the public. Talking about the current ruling party

United Progressive Alliance(UPA) or informally known as Congress, who has been facing hard

times, since last sometimes due to various scams, it’s policies and acts, needed itself to about

turn its image in the public who was and is furious about, what the public claims as, arbitrary

decisions. In pursuant of that, in Aug. 2013, over 250 congress leaders had a, kind of, crash

course where they were informed about various aspects of Social media and specifically social

networking sites. Prominent leaders like Deepender Hooda, , Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor and

Ajay Makan. Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi, who kept himself aloof from social media,

also stopped by for some time. The participants listened to executives from social networking

giant Facebook, micro-blogging site Twitter. Shahshi Tharoor is already very popular among

youth because of his vibrant and impressive personality, he too, realized the value of social

media and called it as an ‘indispensible’ part of election campaigning. Apparently, Shashi

Tharoor has a twitter following of 1,950,125, the most amongst any congress leader, followed by

Jammu & Kashmir minister, Omar Abdullah, who has a following of 371,048, whereas, Ajay

Makan, is trying his level best to become as influential in twitter as possible23. Congress, though

according to the political experts and analysts has been late in the field of promotion through

social networking sites, has been trying to recover and compete with its competitors, especially

highly socially active BJP, and for the same it hired some technical officials to assist them24, who

believe and are making honest efforts to catch the pace with BJP. Clearly, Congress’ biggest

23 Venketesh Upadhyay, Election campaign: parties draw battle lines on media platforms , available at, http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/XU1EhHP3O5EYJRg3wQGD9M/Election-campaign-parties-draw-battle-lines-on-media-platfo.html (news art)24 Prasant Naidu, Congress To Hire 50 Social Media Activists For 2014 General Elections. Isn’t It Late?, available at, http://lighthouseinsights.in/congress-to-hire-50-social-media-activists-for-2014-general-elections-isnt-it-late.html (news art)

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threat at present is not its tarnished image, but BJP, who is leaving no stone unturned to tore, the

already torn clothes of Congress. Thus, to curb their BJP, congress recently created a “Cyber-

Army”, to combat with the growing popularity of BJP. Cyber-Army’s main objective is

‘onslaught’ BJP on social Media.25 Through this army, they are not trying to highlight the

achievements of UPA, but are also making every effort to ‘bring out the falsehood spread by BJP

in the real world, and to bring down the problems and realities of BJP in front of the people, by

posting in Facebook and commenting on Twitter26, saying that BJP is deceiving people showing

the general public half truth. Not only this, but in the recent state elections held at Chhatisgarh,

Congress took active part in persuading the public through social media. It lost to BJP, who also

promoted itself through social media, from a very meager margin27. Though, it also had to face a

bitter taste of defeat in the recent Delhi elections, but Rahul Gandhi couldn’t help himself, but

appreciating the promotion of AAP done by its young enthusiastic team, and addressed his team

and members to learn from the methods and ideology of AAP.

NaMo- The Pied Piper of Social MediaHe comes in the town from nowhere, and sways away the mass from his magical music and

presence. That’s who NaMo is, that’s what is his essence.

This line by a post in a private blog, clearly define the impact Narendra Modi is having on the

minds of the youth and the people of India. Narendra Modi is the most aspiring and outspoken

aspirant in the General elections of 2014. He is the PM candidate for the BJP, and has buckled

himself down for a win, and it even seems like the fate is favoring him. Getting a clean chit from

the Supreme Court regarding the communal riots which has tarnished his image as a Politician,

Muslims slowly and gradually supporting him, big and famous personalities from all form of

sectors supporting him, and many other factors are favoring him in this elections. He is getting

the advantage of all the hard work he has posed in making Gujarat, from amongst the poorest

state in India to the most developed state in India, within a span of 10 years. His model of

25 NDTV, Congress to create 'cyber-army' to combat BJP 'onslaught' on social media, available at, http://gadgets.ndtv.com/social-networking/news/congress-to-create-cyber-army-to-combat-bjp-onslaught-on-social-media-462876 (news article)26 NDTV, BJP spreading half-truths, canard via social media: Congress, available at, http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/bjp-spreading-half-truths-canard-via-social-media-congress-409044 (news art)27 NDTV, Netas hit social media to woo voters in Chhattisgarh, available athttp://www.ndtv.com/article/assembly-polls/netas-hit-social-media-to-woo-voters-in-chhattisgarh-446929?curl=1392155186 (news article)

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building and developing Gujarat though has been in many controversies since ever he came in

power, but has definitely and undoubtedly promoted his image as a leader with a change. Be it

the technological, administrative or industrial development, he has succeeded and has shut the

mouth of his critics every time. Because of his clean and active image of an ideal leader, he has

got an immense support of the public not only from Gujarat, or India, but from all over the

world.

General elections are coming as everyone is tightening their belts and making every possible

effort to woo the voters, BJP took its first step by playing its master card, which forced every

other political party to strategize and ponder upon their plans once again. BJP took this decision

after a lot of sacrifices and oppositions from its own alliances. Nitish Jaiswal, who had been with

BJP since a long time, broke his ties with BJP the moment they announced Narendra Modi as

their PM candidate. Not only Nitish, but prominent leaders like Naveen Pattnaik, Lal Krishna

Advani etc. stated blatant opposition with Narendra Modi’s name being announced as their

candidate for PM. Though later, some of these rifts were cleared. Lal Krishna Advani has

apparently started supporting the party’s decision. But in spite of all this, BJP didn’t back out its

decision and constantly backed Narendra Modi, and their decision, at least currently seems worth

taking. People say that they have faith on Narendra Modi, the Gujarat development model has

become an ideal to be followed by every state govt., and so even the public is excited to see

Narendra Modi as the potential PM. Hence, even Narendra Modi is also making every possible

effort to connect to the people, and his medium is Social media, of which he is making a

commendable use. He has made use of technology, so proficiently and in excessive manner that

he has been registered in Guinness book of world records, and is setting many benchmarks to be

followed in future for election campaigning. This section will analyze the use of social media by

Narendra Modi in pursuance of the General elections 2014.

The BRAND NaMoThe Brand Modi – How has Narendra Modi succeeded himself in making the brand NaMo,

analyzing it through Keller’s brand equity model?

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This election season, certainly the buzz all around is Narendra Modi. He seems to have

overtaken all other opponents in the field of promotion and election campaigning. He has been

able to connect himself to a great amount of people, making them aware of his achievements,

and the progress he has made in Gujarat, which is now very apparent and exemplary to the whole

world. Today Narendra Modi is no less than a brand in himself. Some are even saying that he

might very soon take a trademark of his name, as many other celebrities like Shahrukh Khan,

Amitabh Bacchan etc already taken28. And the credit to his brand making goes to social media. In

this section, an analysis to his brand making will be done, through Keller’s brand equity model,

which is a tool used to make a brand which the public supports, and hence in this case, is

ultimately proving to be an effective tool for his election campaigning.

About Keller’s brand equity model

Though the model is basically used as a business tool for building a brand, but it’s universality of

application can be used to determine how a person can make a brand of himself29. The thought

behind the model is straightforward. Shape and design how customers feel and think about your

product to build a strong brand. Build a proper experience around your brand, so that consumers

may have a set positive thinking, feelings, notions, and opinions about it. Strong brand equity

will force the customers to buy your product, and hence will recommend others to buy your

product. Customers, of such nature, are loyal and you are less likely to lose them to your

competitors.30

Step 1: Brand Identity – Who Are You?

28 Rasul Bailiy, Celebrities using trademark route to check name misuseAvailable at, http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/Dss3fISYwLqa0bQr53dhfL/Celebrities-using-trademark-route-to-check-name-misuse.html (news art)29 The idea is used to make a consumer product a brand. But, can be used by a person himself when he/she is famous enough to start being considered as a brand. The idea is that endorser’s credibility has positive impact on brand equity and brand credibility mediates this relationship.- IMPACT OF CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT ON BRAND EQUITY, by Seyed Ibne-Ali Jaffari, ; available at, https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&cad=rja&ved=0CFcQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.au.edu.pk%2Fjbe%2Fjbefiles%2FAKMAL-Final%2520for%2520submission-AES.doc&ei=bNT8UrDMNIKJrQenvIB4&usg=AFQjCNGHje-fl10C35jLVLbGapIROFZ_Bg&sig2=Ghi4CAPZRRAsmjecTOAIbg&bvm=bv.61379712,d.bmk (article) 30 Brand Equity Measurements, available at, http://www.marketingresearch.org/brand-equity-models (blog)

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The first step talks about setting your goal as creating a “brand salience," or awareness. That

means, the promoter needs to ensure that his brand stands out and it is recognized amongst the

customers. The customers must be aware about the product and must be thinking to use it.

Narendra Modi was already famous regarding the change he brought in Gujarat. The kind of

development he brought in Gujarat is still commendable and is viewed as a progress model

which should be followed. But he stepped in social media in 2007 through YouTube and

properly in 2009, where he entered the world of Facebook and Twitter, as mentioned earlier31,

because of which people had started recognizing him more and more. But Modi changed his

content and strategy in the social media, as per his objectives. Earlier, while he was new to the

social media, he created his brand identity, by establishing his existence in various social media

platforms. Whatever content he used to post in facebook, the same were posted and sent to the

twitter. He regarded, and still regards, Swami Vivekananda as his inspiration and his favorite

leader. He used to post his quotes and sayings which were mainly extracted from his scriptures

and daily activities. Possibly testing the water, Modi was definitely measuring the number of

posts, his views, comments, reactions and the content too!! He was getting popular slowly, and

was being recognized in the social media, especially amongst the youth of whom the maximum

Indian social media consists of, thus getting popular. The first step of the brand equity model

basically postulates that one should research his market thoroughly so that one can understand

his customers and how his customers are pursuing the brand, along with the different market

segments with different needs and relationships concerning the brand. Modi’s first step was

successful as he was earlier popular amongst the middle age groups because of attractive nature

to the people, but now his brand was getting popular amongst the youth, who were new and were

developing their interest in politics; all thanks to social media technology.

Step 2: Brand Meaning – What Are You?

31 Supra.28

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Step two is about defining, identifying and stating what your brand is. The two building blocks

of this stage are ‘performance’, i.e. How far is the product able to meet the customer’s needs?

And ‘imagery’ means how far is the product socially and psychologically successful?

Thus, here, in this stage, Modi focused on the building up his ‘imagery’ by focusing on his

‘performance’, and one of the prime medium to promote this was social media. This was the time

for him to flaunt about the hard work he had putted in the development of Gujarat during the

three times he has been elected as the ‘king’ of Gujarat. He started posting various

developmental facts, images and comparative and analytical statistics about the progress in

facebook. He started talking, sharing and commenting on facebook about the same. Basically,

the stage was already set by him. The performance of his product, i.e. Gujarat development

model has already received a lot of critical acclaim. This is not only very apparent because of

various statistics that support this, but also this has been applauded by various media houses, and

recently became a hot topic of debate when the social media groups started critically analyzing

the development model. It certainly did create imagery as a result of the performance, which

was actually needed by Modi and BJP, in pursuit of the elections. The fan following has been

increasing ever since in facebook, and the number of followers also increasing in twitter. His

videos and rallies are being watched in great numbers in YouTube and more and more people

joining him in Google hangouts. Thus an imagery of his progress has been created and highly

promoted with the help of social media.

Step 3: Brand Response – What Do I Think, or Feel, About You?

As the subhead indicates, the customer’s reaction to the brand fall under two heads, i.e.

‘judgment’ and ‘feelings’. Customers are such that their thinking process about the product never

stops and hence always keep judging it. These judgments can be categorized in four types, on

which it is based. They are- Quality (that is perceived), Credibility, Consideration (based on

uniqueness of the product) and Superiority (based on competition). Customers connect

themselves to the product, and so they also feel for it. Hence, the model suggests six brand

feelings- fun, security excitement, social approval, warmth and self-respect.

Modi has now shifted his focus in letting the public make ‘judgments’ and ‘feelings’. He adopted

the strategy of following people in Twitter, which was not only unusual move to connect to the

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people, but also this helped Modi alleviate his credibility, confidence among people and trust. By

Dec. 30 2013 he was following 885 people. The people he was following included international

leaders, famous celebrities, his fellow colleagues from BJP, and some of his true fans and well-

wishers. This strategy proved really successful. None of the political leader of such a stature had

taken this move of following people in twitter. This overtly binge of him ‘following back’

established the ‘bond’ which people have started feeling, and hence, since then the frequency of

his posts, his followings have not-so- shockingly increased. With the change in time and issues,

he changed the content of his posts simultaneously, and now he started expressing blatant

criticizing opinions about his oppositions, which helped created a ‘feeling’ towards the objects of

Modi. Narendra Modi has now become NaMo, and popularly #NaMo in facebook, as a result of

connection.

He was able to attract attention of many. He was able to establish and root confidence in his

existing followers and supporters, apart from that a sense of conviction was started being built

slowly in the mind of those who were, if not against, but at least were neutral about him. He

remains the most talked about Politian in social media, and recently the most popular Indian

personality, leaving even Amitabh Bacchan behind. He recently launched the campaign of ‘Chai

pe charcha’, where he declared it as an effective tool to connect to people, and his result also

showed this. (This will be discussed in detail below).

Many of his critics and antagonists have started calling him as “Feku” in social media.

Moreover the genuineness of his fans and followers has often been a question of debate, but his

number of followers and supporters has outnumbered his oppositions, crediting the impact on

social media, because according to them, it is his work which is outnumbering them over his

oppositions.

Step 4: Brand Resonance – How Much of a Connection Would I Like to Have With You?

This step sits at the top of the model, reason being that it is the most difficult and most desirable

point for any brand to reach. This is attained when the customers feel a deep intact and a

psychological connection with the brand. The test is based on the tests on the behavioral loyalty,

attitudinal attachment, sense of community sharing of brand and the brand’s active engagement.

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The party and NaMo brand has constantly been trying to persuade the common mass to vote for

Modi in the general elections, but the fourth step of the model can only be assessed, after the

elections and the brand will be said to be a purely successful, and all its efforts will be said to be

fruitful, IF Modi succeeds to become the Prime minister and BJP is able to form its govt. in LS.

Hence, despite all the efforts, social media campaigning, and all the predictions, it can’t be really

said that the brand NaMo succeeded, if he fails. Though according to many Media houses,

experts, and social media’s almost unanimous opinion, the chances of him loosing is bleak, but

politics is an unpredicted field and so is the human nature, therefore what all NaMo can do for

now is to keep trying connect to more and more people, as they have effectively being doing

through social media and various other sources, and keep their fingers crossed.

Thus, we saw that how NaMo ‘brand’ is making an effective use of technology in the form of

social media to promote BJP for General Elections. Moreover how it is overtaking other political

parties in the field of Social Media for election campaigning. But it’s not just the social media

aspect of technology that is assisting the parties to promote them. The next section will deal with

how the Mobile technology has helped, and is helping in electoral campaigning.

4. MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

The Mobile technology took a big leap in last six years, when the mobile companies like Apple,

Nokia developed smart phones and the companies like Google developing Android, Microsoft

developing Windows OS, and Apple developing probably the most adored Operating

system(OS) iOS. This gave a new room to life tools, making it easier, diversified, and versatile,

but most importantly, the value how people have been able to connect themselves through this

small, little device, which carries the whole world in it. Now when such a device has been made

which lets people connect to each other in such a diverse manner, how could politicians have

resisted themselves to make use, expand and exploit the use of such a device? The device is not

only used to urge and make people associated with the campaign, but has also become a source

to raise funds for election campaigns. And the best thing about mobile phones is that it is easy to

carry, and people have that every time with them. Mobile phones have become so an integral part

of our life that from waking up in the morning till getting back to sleep, mobiles play some role

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or the other in easing our life and increasing its efficiency. Hence, if something is send to them,

it becomes really easy for them to access and connect with because it is there with them all the

time.

The movement to use mobile phones for election campaigning started from US Presidential

elections in 2012, where both Romney and Obama both made use of mobile technology to reach

maximum number of people. They targeted basically the youth and the Hispanic voters, which

play a major role in elections. Both released a good number of mobile applications to promote

themselves. Some of the Applications by Obama and Romney are-:

Mobile Apps by Obama

Obama for America- This app was designed to help the voters to find the volunteers of

Obama campaign; users can access the minute-to-minute information about the campaign

and connect them through social podiums and sites like Twitter, Facebook etc.32

Latino App- The app was basically targeted towards Hispanic voters. The app allowed

the Hispanic voters to register for voting and use social media contacts to increase the

supporters, apart from various other things.

Mobile Apps by Romney

Mitt’s VP app - This lets the users get to know the first Vice-president candidate from the

Republican Party. It operated on iOS and Android, and let people connect with the

candidates through Facebook and Twitter, apart from various information and procedures

relating to voting33.

Other Mobile Apps

32 Byron Tau, Obama campaign launches mobile app , available at, http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/07/obama-campaign-launches-mobile-app-130576.html (news art) 33Emily Schultes, Romney, Obama camps release smartphone apps, available at, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/79203.html (news art)

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OpenStates- A nonprofit watchdog app which let the users know about various activities

going on in the various state assemblies34.

Congress+ - Contains various information’s, bio-data, and contact information etc. of

various members of state assemblies.35

These are some of the major mobile/Smartphone apps that were used in the US presidential

elections of 201236. These created a wave of advertising through mobile phones which carried

away many candidates all over the world, and forced them to spend huge amounts on making

and promoting such apps. India is no exception to it. Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, Congress

etc. have come up with their own mobile/Smartphone applications to connect them to voters,

especially youth, and advertise themselves. A survey found out that there are more mobile

phones and Smartphones in India, than the number of toilets in India. This clearly signifies the

wide array of network and reach the mobile phones can have. The best thing that Indians feel

about such apps is that they are free and hence all the apps developed on such formats by any

political party is kept free so as to reach maximum people.

Some of the mobile phone applications and other methods used by various candidates to promote

themselves are-:

Mobile Apps- Various mobile apps with regard to various aspects have been released by different

–different candidates. Some of the applications are-

India272+ - This was launched by Narendra Modi in pursuance of the BJP’s Mission

272+. It enables volunteers to participate in open forums, discussions and analysis of

various policies and speeches by Narendra Modi. It is available on Google+ (obviously)

for free. Moreover volunteers can connect with other volunteers to engage in a debate and

participate in various forums about Narendra Modi. It also helps connect various

volunteers to the party members and Narendra Modi through facebook and twitter.37

34Open states, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/open-states/id500672932?mt=8 (Applications)35 Congress+, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/congress+/id291329881?mt=8 (Applications)36 10 smartphone apps for 2012 elections, available at, http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/08/09/top-10-smartphone-apps-for-the-2012-campaign (blog)37 Mobile application for India272+ launched by Shri Narendra Modihttp://www.narendramodi.in/mobile-application-for-india272-launched-by-shri-narendra-modi/ (other internet )

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Narendra Modi - It talks about various achievements, plans, policies and missions

regarding Narendra Modi. The app also lets connect the people to connect to Narendra

Modi through facebook and Twitter.38

Narendra Modi Game- This game is designed in a manner that the protagonist, i.e.

Narendra Modi, sets out in various missions to free India from terrorism, inflation,

corruption, by establishing various yojanas. The game has apparently gained a good

popularity, and is increasing the number of subscribers.39

Narendra Modi Quotes and Narendra Modi Express- These two are amongst the most

popular Narendra Modi apps. Both of them talk and boast of Narendra Modi, by

mentioning his quotes, and the other app letting and promoting Narendra Modi as a PM.

They also let share, comment on and download the pictures and videos related to

Narendra Modi. 40

With Congress- An unofficial app of congress, where congress try to woo voters through

various contests and gift prizes.

An Unnamed Congress app- there’s an unnamed app by congress where the congress will

give various information about itself like the electoral data, profile of the candidates and

various other information which will let the people know about them.41

INC Manifesto- It tells about the history, plans, and policies and lets the application users

connect with Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. Users also can send their

suggestions and ideas regarding the policies and changes to be made in manifesto.42

The AAP official app- This lets users connect to the AAP, its various leaders, and their

latest facebook, Google+ etc. 43

Vote For India 2014- A social mobile app which gives detail analysis of elections,

candidates and make people aware of their voting rights, also discusses various issues

38 Narendra Modi,https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.narendramodi&hl=en (Applications)39 Narendra Modi Game - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pscgame.in.namo (Applications)40 Narendra Modi Quotes-https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actech.narendramodi.android (Applications)41Varuni Khosla, After AAP, BJP and Congress launch smartphone apps to woo urban middle-class voters,available at, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-07/news/45955287_1_iphone-app-revamped-app-aap (news art)42 INC Manifesto-https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.incmanifesto.in (Applications)43Vote for India https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.next.aappublicapp (Applications)

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related to development of India and how sensible voting can change the fallacies in

Indian political and administrative system.44

Elections 2014- This app provides the users the facility of real time result of General

elections 2014, with the initials, progress and the situation of various parties in the

battlefield on the day of result. Users can also get the information regarding various

constituencies and the candidates appearing from respective constituencies.

These are some of the major mobile app that is being used for election campaigning in India. But

these apps are not the only way for parties to advertise themselves. There is still a large chunk of

population of India who don’t possess Smartphones. A large amount population still uses basic

mobile phones. But parties have even taken various measures to even fill that gap. Before these

trendy operating system and Smartphones actually got into fashion, SMS facility was highly

popular. Even today it is, but not that much. Still it is present in every phone, and so parties

advertise themselves through SMS and calls, and recently the system of missed calls has wooed

the political parties.

SMS - The trend of bulk SMS’s as a part of advertisement are highly popular and are amongst

one of the most common method of political campaigning. Political parties register their

common domain or address, through which they SMS various people and on various numbers.

They also ask for a reply back SMS to become a member of the party or get associated with the

party. This technique, though very simple, is not getting that much popularity for the reason that

it costs the people Rs. 3 per SMS to reply back and then also there is no guarantee that how

much recognition and prospect will they get in the party.

Missed Calls- The missed call system of voting is gaining popularity very steadily. The

technology works on the basis of IVR or Interactive Voice Response system45, and people have

found it as an excellent alternative to SMS voting system. One such service SMS takes around

Rs. 3 per SMS. Not only people, but even the gainers find missed call system better than SMS, as

it takes only 10p per missed call, which also increases the number of people calling.

44 Elections 2014 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aar.india2014election (Applications) 45 Uttam Pegu, Missed call system: How to Implement it, available at, http://www.ivrsworld.com/ivr-applications/missed-call-voting-system-how-to-implement-it/ (blog)

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It can be said that it was Anna Hazare’s lokpal bill movement when the first time the system of

missed calls was used to gain support of the people to join the initiative46. Anna gained a huge

support through the missed calls, as a result of which the parliament had to kneel down and pass

the lokpal bill. Such a successful initiative fueled the other political parties to adopt the system

and try to increase the members and supporters. Recently AAP, in the Delhi elections, adopted

the miss call system to increase the number of followers and members. The initiative was termed

as ‘Main bhi aam aadmi’47. The party targeted the benchmark of one crore through the missed

call system and was, to some extent, successful. Not even this, but AAP also tried the door-to-

door campaign as a part of the ‘Main bhi aam aadmi’ campaign, for those people who don’t own

any mobile numbers48. Pursuant to this initiative, BJP also launched its own such missed call

campaign. In Chandigarh, recently, BJP launched one such campaign and gained a membership

of 4500+ in just one night.49. The campaign was basically done to add more and more supporters

for Narendra Modi as a PM candidate, and join the members in mission 272+. This scheme

gained a wide popularity and the same was applied in Mumbai during a rally of Narendra Modi,

when the people just had to give a missed call, and the party members will call them back, take

down their residential address, and pick them up to come for the rally. No doubt it was

successful, and a whooping number of 8 Lakhs participated in the rally.50

46 Sandeep Budki, Mobiles power Hazare's campaign, available at,http://www.themobileindian.com/news/948_Mobiles-power-Hazares-campaign (blog)47 http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140110/news-politics/article/give-missed-call-join-aap-party-kicks-nation-wide-membership-drive 48Deccan Chronicle, Give a missed call to join AAP: Party kicks off nation-wide membership drive, available at, http://www.enewspaperofindia.com/ENIBureau/News/Give-a-missed-call-and-become-an-AAP-member!_news_1965.aspx# (news art)49Nishu Mahajan,State Bjp’s ‘Missed Call’ Campaign Registers 4,500 Calls, available at, http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/state-bjps-missed-call-campaign-registers-4500-calls.html (news art.) 50 NDTV, Mumbai: give BJP a missed call, get picked up for Narendra Modi rally, available athttp://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/mumbai-give-bjp-a-missed-call-get-picked-up-for-narendra-modi-rally-457285 (News art)

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5. TELEVISION AND RALLIES

1960. American Presidential elections. A new device had entered into the market, which had

created a revolution in the broadcasting industry, and entertainment industry, Televisions.

Presidents like Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt made radio as their medium to

promote themselves. It was the time of John F. Kennedy when he made TV as his superpower to

promote himself. For him, TV was the chief source of communication and persuasion. TV was a

medium which went on growing and got such a household necessity by 2000’s that it became

amongst the most integral part of every household51. Today TV has not kept itself limited to

entertainment, but has increased it array to political aspects and Electoral campaigning. TV is

today the biggest medium through which electoral campaigning is done. Be it advertising, or

rally broadcasting, or debates, or raising funds for campaigning, none can really exist had there

been no TV. The same role it is playing in India since long. News channels are always flooded

and revolve around such political news, and more than winning candidate, it is these news

channel owners who are happy, because of whooping amount of views their channel get, during

elections.

4 ways in which the TV has influenced General Elections and is affecting 2014 Elections

I. The dominance of media consultants - The candidates need the public attention and the

best way to appeal the public is TV and media. In such a situation media consultants play

a major role by controlling the candidate’s image when the public sees them. Every

political party hires one such media consultancy firm which controls the media and the

news, and shows only those things which enhances their client’s image in public and

lowers down the opponent’s public in media. Many a times it is the News channels

themselves act as media consultants, but obviously no one opens it. For example, NDTV

is believed to be media consultants of SP, Zee news of BJP, and ABP of Congress. Hence

even in these elections, they show mostly that content and advertise mostly those of their

client’s. Though, apparently, it is a wrong practice, but all is fair in love and war. Period.

II. Campaign Ads - As soon as the election season come, all the TV channels are flooded

with the pro-socialist, pro-development and pro-pro altruism advertisements, and this

becomes major reason for the political party’s campaign spending on advertisement

51 John F. Kennedy and Television, available at, http://jfredmacdonald.com/trm/ivjfk.htm (blog)

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agencies and a win-win situation for the agencies52. In 2014 elections, Congress alone is

planning to spend around Rs. 500 cr., which includes around 150 cr. For TV

advertisement. Congress’ ‘Main nahi, Hum’ and BJP’s Rs. 400 cr. Ads, of which more

than 120cr. are for TV ads, and their ad of ‘Ek Bharat’ is going all viral, and controversial

too53. AAP has left a permanent mark in terms of ads while promoting themselves

through TV ads. In Delhi elections alone, they spent more than Rs. 20cr. for TV ads.54

III. Increased Importance of Debates and Interviews - They have undoubtedly taken the most

important place in terms of campaigning, though it’s a different thing that it is not

basically ‘advertising’ or ‘promoting’. During these debates and interviews, candidates

and party members express their personal opinion, which is non-scripted and

spontaneous, judging which, the public makes their opinion about the candidate. So it is

not exactly promoting, because Rahul Gandhi was not ‘promoting’ himself when he

ruined his image while giving an interview in News Hour in Times Now, or no other

candidate ‘promotes’ himself when he indulges in a debate with other party members

defending his party against the blatant questions raised during the debate55.

IV. Rallies and Long Election cycle- The long election cycle gives the politicians a big

amount of time to promote themselves. They do a large number of rallies throughout

India which are broadcasted through TV. Be it Narendra Modi’s various rallies, be it in

Bhopal which made a world record in itself by becoming largest Indian rally ever56, to be

performed and broadcasted, or be it Ahmadabad’s rally where the broadcast was made in

3D across globe.57.

52 Charles Byrant, How Campaign Finance Works , available at, http://money.howstuffworks.com/campaign-finance.htm (news art.)53 ET, Political controversy erupts over BJP's 'Rs 400 crore' ad campaigns, available at,http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-02-20/news/47527459_1_400-crore-dentsu-and-taproot-20-crore (news art.) 54 Indian Express, Nail-biting for politicians, but win-win 2014 for ad agencies, available at,http://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/nail-biting-for-politicians-but-win-win-2014-for-ad-agencies/ (news art)55 Anant Goenka, 11 instances where Rahul Gandhi could have given better answers in interview with Arnab, available at, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/11-instances-where-rahul-gandhi-could-have-given-better-answers-in-interview-with-arnab/ 56 Venkaiah Naidu,Narendra Modi's Bhopal rally is a world record, says BJP, available at http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-09-28/news/42481660_1_karnataka-janata-party-prime-ministerial-narendra-modi 57 HT , Modi's 3D speeches during 2012 polls enter Guiness Book, available at http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/modi-s-3d-speeches-during-2012-polls-enter-guiness-book/article1-1026512.aspx

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Thus we see that how TV and media has almost overtaken other forms of promotion, when it

comes to electoral campaigning. But obviously this form of media is highly disputed because

of its abuse. People more than social media and mobile phones are connected to politicians

through such rallies and TV, hence it is easily inferred that such mediums are highly paid,

and abused to woo voters, thus deceiving them, and amongst them the name of Rahul Gandhi

and Narendra Modi are very popular58.

6. CONCLUSION

Thus we saw how technology in various shapes is playing a major, rather the biggest role in

electoral campaigning. Today our lives are totally dependent upon technology in some form or

the other and so the life of politicians. Their dependence upon media and technology is nothing

less than a need for them. It is this technology in the form of social media, TV, radio, mobile etc.

which portrays their image in front of the public. But this asset too is becoming a source for them

to deceive the general public. Paid media, fake claims, fake ID’s on social networking sites are

being misused by them to display only such ‘truths’ which seem favoring them, and highlight

them and hype them to such an extent, that their dark side is hidden in the blind spot of public’s

eye. All credit to technology.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

OFFICIAL REPORTS58 Deccan Chronivcle, Cobrapost's Operation Blue Virus: Is Narendra Modi's popularity on social media real? available at http://www.deccanchronicle.com/131129/news-current-affairs/article/cobraposts-operation-blue-virus-narendra-modis-popularity-social

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Instructions of the Commission with respect to use of Social Media in......................................................4

INTERNET NEWS ARTICLES

2012-The social media election?, Laurence Cruz........................................................................................7Anand, AAP plans to use successful advertisement strategy of Delhi assembly elections in 2014 polls...10Anant Goenka, 11 instances where Rahul Gandhi could have given better answers in interview with

Arnab,....................................................................................................................................................25Auli Maharani, How Strongly Can Social Media Influence and Control People’s Lives?...........................5Byron Tau, Obama campaign launches mobile app...................................................................................19Charles Byrant, How Campaign Finance Works.......................................................................................25CNN-IBN, AAP follows Obama's campaign strategy for Delhi polls.........................................................9Deccan Chronicle, Give a missed call to join AAP: Party kicks off nation-wide membership drive.........23Deccan Chronivcle, Cobrapost's Operation Blue Virus: Is Narendra Modi's popularity on social media

real?.......................................................................................................................................................26Emily Schultes, Romney, Obama camps release smartphone apps............................................................19ET, Political controversy erupts over BJP's 'Rs 400 crore' ad campaigns..................................................25How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign...........................................8HT , Modi's 3D speeches during 2012 polls enter Guiness Book..............................................................26Indian Express, Nail-biting for politicians, but win-win 2014 for ad agencies..........................................25Mahima Kaul, India: Social media finally has its campaign in the sun........................................................9Meetika Shrivastava, Social Media And Its Use By The Government.....................................................6, 8Mobile application for India272+ launched by Shri Narendra Modi.........................................................20Mohammed Ali, AAP took baby steps on social media, now it’s a runway hit...........................................9NDTV, BJP spreading half-truths, canard via social media: Congress......................................................12NDTV, Congress to create 'cyber-army' to combat BJP 'onslaught' on social media.................................12NDTV, Mumbai: give BJP a missed call, get picked up for Narendra Modi rally.....................................23NDTV, Netas hit social media to woo voters in Chhattisgarh...................................................................12Nidhi Verma, Interview: Modi a bloated figure: Virappa Moily...............................................................11Nishu Mahajan,State Bjp’s ‘Missed Call’ Campaign Registers 4,500 Calls..............................................23Prasant Naidu, Congress To Hire 50 Social Media Activists For 2014 General Elections. Isn’t It Late?. .12Rasul Bailiy, Celebrities using trademark route to check name misuse.....................................................14Slugpost, AAP and its social media engineering in Delhi elections.............................................................9Social Media’s Role in the 2012 US Election: Obama Breaks Twitter Records..........................................7Uttara Choudhary, India poised to overtake US as Facebook’s No 1 market............................................10Varuni Khosla, After AAP, BJP and Congress launch smartphone apps to woo urban middle-class voters

...............................................................................................................................................................21Venkaiah Naidu,Narendra Modi's Bhopal rally is a world record, says BJP.............................................25Venketesh Upadhyay, Election campaign: parties draw battle lines on media platforms..........................11Victor Lipman, The world’s most active Twitter Country.........................................................................10

OTHER INTERNET RESOURCES

Suomen Tovio, Social Media - The New Power Of....................................................................................5

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IMPACT OF CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT ON BRAND EQUITY, by Seyed Ibne-Ali Jaffari,.........14Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein Michael (2010). "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and

opportunities of social media...................................................................................................................6

BLOGS

10 smartphone apps for 2012 elections......................................................................................................20Brand Equity Measurements,.....................................................................................................................14Dick Dahl, Experts explore how social networks can influence behavior and decision-making,.................6Nitish Kanal, Social media playing a big role in AAP’s popularity.............................................................8Sandeep Budki, Mobiles power Hazare's campaign..................................................................................23Uttam Pegu, Missed call system: How to Implement it.............................................................................22

INTERNET MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Congress+..................................................................................................................................................20Elections 2014...........................................................................................................................................22INC Manifesto...........................................................................................................................................21Narendra Modi..........................................................................................................................................21Narendra Modi Game................................................................................................................................21Narendra Modi Quotes..............................................................................................................................21Open states................................................................................................................................................20Vote for India............................................................................................................................................21

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