Social Media Effective Tool to Gain Votes in Election

by: Aditya E.S. Wicaksono Jakarta, Feb 27 (Antara) - The social media has evolved into an effective tool to gain votes for political parties, politicians, or presidential candidates in Indonesia's 2014 General Elections, stated Social Media Observer Sony Subrata. Campaigning through social media was considered to be more effective than the traditional approaches of using banners or leaflets to attract votes, Sony Subrata remarked during a seminar on the use of technology for election here on Thursday. "Now, younger voters are not easily influenced by political campaign commercials broadcasted on television channels. However, if one of their friends talks about the good quality or program of a certain candidate, they will more give credit to that," Subrata pointed out. One of the advantages of social media is that it diminishes the physical barriers in connectivity. "When people hear good things about a candidate, they will immediately share this information through social media channels. Good news travels fast, bad news travels even faster," Subrata emphasized. Although the social media users in Indonesia, in this case Twitter, are only 30 million, of which 20 million are active users, they still are an influencing factor. "When there is only one child in a family using social media, he or she will share information about certain candidates to all his or her family members," noted Subrata, who has been a political consultant for some prominent figures such as Jakarta's Governor Jokowi and Minister Dahlan Iskan. (*)