Democrats Using Social Media To Spark Interest In The Election

[Lite Beer]

Interview.

We're using social media to spark interest in the election: Apirak

By The Nation on Sunday

Tanutpong Kongsai talks to Democrat Apirak Kosayothin (@apirak_bangkok) who is spearheading his party's social media offensive in the election campaig

What is your social media plan?

Our strategy is to link the party's key MP candidates with the voters so that they know our policies to solve economic and other problems.

Social media allow two-way communication so the electorate can also express their views, which can then be commented by others in the networked community.

Now, our party leader and top figures all have Twitter and Facebook accounts. In fact all MP candidates can use social media to interact with their constituencies.

In Thailand, there are as many as 8 million to 9 million users of Facebook and Twitter, so all these people will be able to follow up with our candidates on line.

Who are your target groups and what are their demographics?

Age, occupations and other profiles vary, but they all love to use information technology. Most use Facebook, but some also use Twitter and YouTube.

They like to express their opinions and comments. Our target includes 18-year-olds who are first-time voters as we want to present a new form of politics to these people.

In fact, our party leader [PM Abhisit Vejjajiva] is a long-time user of social media, while Khun Korn [Chatikanij, finance minister] and Khun Korbsak [sabhavasu, former deputy premier] and Khun Satit [Wongnongtoey] also use social media regularly.

Any problems in using social media in this campaign?

One of the issues is that people expect responses to every query. For example, our party leader has over 600,000 online followers so he cannot personally reply to every question. He is just too busy.

Some had complained that they didn't want the PM's assistants to respond on his behalf.

Hence, the party leader now has a new account, @Abhisit_DP [where he will respond personally].

Regarding your platform, how much has come from social media?

We have used social media to preliminarily evaluate policy initiatives. There are both agreements and disagreements so that we could fine-tune those ideas.

The so-called silent majority is crucial to this election. How are you going to use social media to convince them to vote for your party?

In fact, we need to interact with the mainstream media, namely, TV, radio and newspapers to promote the use of social media and generate fresh interest in this election, especially among those who have not paid attention before.

What about the Democrat Party drawing No 10 for the election?

As soon as we got No 10 during the Election Commission's lot-drawing, I posted that if you like Messi [the No 10 player for Barcelona] please vote for the Democrats.

Then, another guy posted if he liked Rooney [of Manchester United], could he also vote for the party. All this stuff is viral and very fast in the online world, so we could somehow create waves of new interest in the election countdown.

We need to link No 10 with something people are very fami-liar. Besides soccer, [the most

popular sport in Thailand], people are talking about Ben Ten, the popular cartoon series, or Poo Chana Sip Tit, a famous Thai work of literature about a Burmese king.

-- The Nation 2011-05-22

[endure]

I've no doubt that all those rice farmers in Isaan (Faces to the mud, backs to the sky) are grateful that their elected representatives are using a communications medium that they've no hope of ever reading.

[samurai]

As soon as we got No 10 during the Election Commission's lot-drawing, I posted that if you like Messi [the No 10 player for Barcelona] please vote for the Democrats.

Then, another guy posted if he liked Rooney [of Manchester United], could he also vote for the party. All this stuff is viral and very fast in the online world, so we could somehow create waves of new interest in the election countdown.

Good luck with becoming viral. I will help and send the link around.

[timekeeper]

I've no doubt that all those rice farmers in Isaan (Faces to the mud, backs to the sky) are grateful that their elected representatives are using a communications medium that they've no hope of ever reading.

maybe they can buy one using the subsidy money they have been happily receiving from the democrats .......

Edited May 22, 2011 by timekeeper

[dunkin2012]

I've no doubt that all those rice farmers in Isaan (Faces to the mud, backs to the sky) are grateful that their elected representatives are using a communications medium that they've no hope of ever reading.

maybe they can buy one using the subsidy money they have been happily receiving from the democrats .......

now my cheap fone, Samsung can facebook. The technology is really affordable nowadays. On the other hand, trying to many 'em understand what is Faceboook will be hard work + wastefully wished.

[timekeeper]

I've no doubt that all those rice farmers in Isaan (Faces to the mud, backs to the sky) are grateful that their elected representatives are using a communications medium that they've no hope of ever reading.

maybe Thaksin should offer to buy them all one?

oh sorry, i forgot, its not in his best interests to keep them informed

they might seem him and his sibling for what they really are..........

[Crushdepth]

These "XXXX discovers social media" stories are so lame.

[animatic]

#10 Downing Street springs quickly to mind.

[samurai]

#10 Downing Street springs quickly to mind.

You can twitter that to @Abhisit_DP [where he will respond personally].

[webfact]

SPECIAL

Major parties reach out via social media

By Budsarakham Sinlapalavan

The Nation

It is not surprising at all that the Democrat Party, the oldest political party, is leaning heavily on social media to woo voters, especially from the new generation.

The party plans to have its leader, caretaker Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, talk to the public via Livestream on his Facebook page.

The party earlier launched the Future Thai Leaders project, aimed at winning support from youths and employing social networks to arouse a greater interest in politics among the silent majority.

Now, most if not all new-generation people and city residents are familiar with Internet communities, especially Facebook and Twitter. And people seem to be so crazy about online life or have been so affected by "social networkism" that some offices have blocked access to Facebook.

Several parties have moved to try to dominate the online communities and the two major parties - Democrat and Pheu Thai - seem interested the most in courting online users.

The Democrats' tapping of social media as a new-age tool to win votes reflects the lead of some core members, including Abhisit, Korn Chatikavanij, Korbsak Sabhavasu and Satit Wongnontoey, who have jumped into cyberspace by opening social network accounts.

Apirak Kosayodhin, the director of the Bangkok election campaign for the Democrats, said the party is providing a new channel for gathering support via social networks. Abhisit would speak live to some 600,000 fans every Sunday at 8.30pm via Livestream on Facebook, with the first broadcast last night, he said.

The live broadcast can be accessed at the Abhisit.M.Vejjajiva Facebook page, which is known as Abhisit Ch.10, and the DemcoratPartyTH or DEM 10 Facebook page.

The Democrats also offer an iPhone application democratTH, with feeds from the party's tweets to iPhone. iPhone users can hear audio clips of Abhisit by shaking the phone.

The Pheu Thai Party is also looking to mine the social media for votes. The party's de-facto leader, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has been using Twitter and Facebook for years to keep in touch with his supporters. Thaksin is seen as the Thai politician who is among the big-time social networkers.

Kanawat Wasinsungworn, deputy leader of Pheu Thai, said the party has been unleashing election campaigns via social media.

People could monitor the party's election platform and view photos of the party's activities on the party's Twitter and Facebook pages. The campaign schedule of Pheu Thai's prime-minister candidate, Yingluck Shinawatra, is also published on the party's Facebook page.

Since their rivals the Democrats have an application, Pheu Thai cannot afford not to have one of its own.

Pheu Thai will this week launch applications for iPhone, Android, Symbian and BlackBerry so the party can disseminate information directly to the people.

"Although most supporters of the party are middle-class and lower-class people, we do not ignore other groups, who are new-generation members. These people are city dwellers with the lifestyle of using social media to communicate," Kanawat said.

Chuwit Kamolvisit, the Rak Prathet Thai Party leader who wants to appeal to young voters, said his party would start campaigning on Facebook and Twitter and the party's website this week.

But his party will need two more weeks to gather information before introducing mobile applications for campaigning. He admitted that the mobile applications might not be ready for this election.

Social media would allow people to know what his party has been doing but he would seek to meet voters face-to-face to ask for their votes, he said.

"I'll focus on visiting voters. I'll visit major provinces, where there are universities, such as Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai and Songkhla. I would like to tell university students there that they will have a chance to meet me in person," Chuwit said.

While political parties have been campaigning on the Internet, the Election Commission has failed to come up with clear-cut regulations to control spending on social media and the scope of online campaigning. It is also uncertain how it can prevent electioneering from continuing after 6pm on July 2, like the prohibition of campaigns in the real world.

An EC official said that since it is difficult to monitor campaign spending on social media, the EC would not control it at all.

Candidates and their canvassers should not post campaign messages online after 6pm, as that would be illegal, the source said.

If their supporters post messages after 6pm, that would be fine, but if the EC can prove that the campaign messages came from the candidates or their canvassers, they would face legal action.

And if they pretend to be their rivals to post the messages, those found posting the messages will also face legal action.

The EC cannot survey cyberspace for any violations of election laws so the candidates and parties must do their own surveillance, the EC source added.

Politicians on Twitter, Facebook

Twitter

@democratTH: 4,183 followers

@Abhisit_DP: 7,956 followers

@PheuThaiParty: 5,345 followers

@PouYingluck: 5,840 followers

@bhumjaithai: 619 followers

@New_Politics: 329 followers

(As of yesterday)

Facebook

* http://www.facebook.com/Abhisit.M.Vejjajiva: 621,243 likes

* www.facebook.com/DemocratPartyTH: 19,243 likes

* facebook.com/pheuthaiparty: 8,325 likes

-- The Nation 2011-05-23

[metisdead]

A post has been removed due to possible violation of copyright and non compliance of fair use. It is generally accepted, but not written into law, that quoting the first two or three sentences of an article and giving a link to the source is considered “fair use” and not a violation of copyright. In this case a graph was posted with no link to it.

A number of replies regarding that post which turned into an arguement were also removed.

[samurai]

As soon as we got No 10 during the Election Commission's lot-drawing, I posted that if you like Messi [the No 10 player for Barcelona] please vote for the Democrats.

Then, another guy posted if he liked Rooney [of Manchester United], could he also vote for the party. All this stuff is viral and very fast in the online world, so we could somehow create waves of new interest in the election countdown.

http://twitpic.com/51u53w