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Twitter to replicate India election strategy in countries going to poll

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ANI Johannesburg

Twitter is planning to repeat parts of its India election strategy across countries that go to polls this year.

The move from the social networking site comes after the strategy emerged as a key tool for politicians and media companies during the world's largest democratic exercise.

According to news24, in India, Twitter Inc worked closely with politicians, including BJP's prime-minister elect Narendra Modi, who used the platform for election campaigning.

Modi had also partnered with mobile and media firms to distribute tweets online and offline.

Now as polling is due in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and the United States later this year, the San Francisco-based company is planning to take its India strategy abroad to expand its foothold in the political arena and increase its user base, the report said.

 

Last week, Twitter sent its top political strategist to Brazil to explain the potential of the social network to senators.

Brazilian senators are likely to use Twitter's six-second video app Vine for campaigning after it was used by Indian politicians.

For the U.S. election, the company has started looking for partners to replicate their 'Tweet To Remember' feature used in India.

The feature enables users to add the voting date automatically to their mobile calendar using a tweet.

The recent elections in India were the country's first major 'Twitter election', and the novelty of the technology gave an advantage to the politicians who adopted first - especially the BJP, said Milan Vaishnav of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the report added.

Tech-savvy Modi, who now has 4.3 million Twitter followers, used the platform relentlessly. He recently tweeted 'selfies' and pictures with his mother.

On May 16 he set a Twitter India record with his victory acknowledgement tweet.

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First Published: May 25 2014 | 9:03 AM IST

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