Thailand's Politicians Turn To Social Media For Election Campaigning

[webfact]

SPECIAL REPORT

Politicians turn to social media for election campaigning

By Kornchanok Raksaseri

The Nation

With 18 million Internet users in Thailand - a number that will rise to 24 million this year, according to the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre - major political parties are making the most of social media now that a general election is around the corner.

The Democrats have launched a recruiting campaign on Facebook called "Future Thai Leaders". A week after its launch, the page has drawn more than 1,370 fans.

"We are using only the social media for this campaign," said Apirak Kosayodhin, who is in charge of Democrats' campaign. So far, 540 people have put their names down as future MP candidates as well as members of the party's election-campaign team, he said.

The Democrat Party currently has 139 constituency MPs and needs more candidates to run in the country's 375 constituencies. Each applicant will be interviewed face to face, while those living abroad will get the virtual face-to-face treatment of an interview via Skype.

Each of the party's MPs will have a Facebook or Twitter account, Apirak said, adding that the sites will be used as communication channels so that MPs can learn earlier what is happening in the electorate, and fans can keep up as well.

Pheu Thai, on the other hand, is using social media to represent the party as a whole. A member of Pheu Thai's "spokesman team", who asked not to be named, said this was because the party was a huge organisation and had lots of personnel. Besides, the party's popularity overshadows that of individual candidates.

However, he admitted that the Democrat Party had more people to be "presenters" for its branding.

According to Apirak, about 60 Democrat MPs are using Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. Active users and fanpage owners include Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva - who has received 568,160 "Likes" - Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij, former PM's secretary-general Korbsak Sabhavasu and former Bangkok governor Apirak.

The Democrat Party Thailand's fanpage has received 11,163 "Likes".

Korn said that promoting himself through social media was just like visiting people in person, and it also meant promoting the party.

"The audience group on the Internet is very wide, and is not only made up of voters in my constituency," he said.

Pheu Thai Party began actively using social media just three months ago because it believed Facebook and Twitter users were mainly Democrat supporters. However, more recently, more and more Pheu Thai and red-shirt supporters have been using social media as a platform to express themselves, the officer said.

"We use the Internet as a 'social network'. All the Twitter, Facebook and YouTube posts are linked to the party's website, www.ptp.or.th," he said, adding that the media were originally the target of YouTube videos recorded at press conferences, but the process took too much time.

Pheu Thai Party's fanpage has 3,256 "Likes", Twitter has 1,032 followers.

"When it comes to a political party's stories, people will feel automatically that they are not neutral. However, there will always be information from the other side. It's up to them who to believe," the Pheu Thai officer said.

Bangkok MP Anudith Nakornthap, who is in charge of Pheu Thai's graft-busting team, said 90 per cent of the target audience for the party's social-media efforts were people who already supported the party. The others are either neutral people who want information or the supporters of opponents.

He said the party also received information from its fans.

"Interactive communication allows us to evaluate people's attitudes towards many things. About two weeks before the palm-oil shortage became an issue in the media, people were posting their complaints on Facebook, so we knew the information," he said, adding that mobile Internet [smart phones] make it easy and convenient to check out information and reply.

Anudith's anti-corruption fanpage has 1,078 "Likes", while his personal page has 5,005 friends.

However, the party recently launched a "Five Failures, 10 Tolerance" campaign attacking the government. Now it has more than 50 "Likes".

Bhum Jai Thai Party and some of its members also use social media.

The party's fanpage has 449 "Likes", while its Twitter @bhumjaithai has 228 followers. The latest update of this account, however, was on January 11.

Some of the Chart Thai Pattana Party's MPs have used the social media, but the party is very new to social networking. It joined Facebook just a few days ago with all the posts linking back to its website www.chartthaipattana.or.th. It has received only one "Like" so far.

The Democrats' Apirak, a veteran marketer, said Thai politics would make increasing use of the Internet and the social media. "Politicians can no longer say that people don't use the Internet in their constituencies. MPs must know how to use the technology. At least they can check out the updates when they come to Bangkok for parliamentary meetings," he said.

-- The Nation 2011-02-18