Cong thinks out of the box, reaches out to party sympathisers

Beefs up Twitter handle, FB page, uses new twitter handle to target

Acknowledging the steep cost that the Congress has had to pay in terms of electoral losses, due to the inability of the party to “communicate” its government’s achievements and schemes, the top brass of the party last weekend at the AICC meeting had called upon party cadre to lay emphasis on a robust communication systems in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress social media wing which has already revamped its website (inc.in) sometime back, is now beefing up its Twitter handle @INCIndia and Facebook page. Not just that the party is now reaching out to non- party based groups or Congress sympathizers who tweet under the handle @WithCongress in a bid to counter the countless “paid BJP trolls” active on social media. Adopting a tool much used in the American Presidential campaign, the Congress will soon be launching “direct personalized mailers” to voters to ensure that they root and ultimately vote for the Congress.   

Congress MP and young gun Deepinder Hooda, a close confidante of Vice President Rahul Gandhi, at whose behest the whole initiative had been undertaken, was tasked with heading the party’s social media initiative. While the website took six months in the making, boasting of features unseen on other party websites like video recordings of speeches made by Congress leaders dating back to pre- Independence, sourcing films from archives of the National Film archives and AIR took time. While all the contemnt for this initiative is in house- the technical backbone has been outsourced.  

Since the party found that its own Twitter handle @INCIndia has not been sufficient to take on the BJP’s social media clout, it has co-opted a group of Congress sympathizers going by the name of @WithCongress, which includes several prominent civil society members. Reaching out to this, group the Congress social media team now provides them content on topics like UPA’s rights based legislations, economic achievements and the like.

Taking this reaching out a step further, Congress insiders disclose that the party has been studying the effectiveness of direct mail advertising ie political mailers that are used in American Presidential campaigns and decided to adopt it.

“A list of influential people have been drawn up and we intend to send them personalized mailers about Congress and UPA so that we ensure that over the next few months we manage to secure the support and vote for the party.” Academic studies have shown that while positive mailers about candidates have positive impact on voter choices, negative mailers on Opposition candidates are equally effective in denting the Opposition camp.

With not just the BJP (its money bags and first mover advantage in place) but the Aam Aadmi Party’s capitalizing on the social media, the Congress is in a close race to outdo the other two.