First of all, let me clarify that the article is not politically motivated nor am I being a pro towards a particular political party. But since Narendra Modi is extremely active on social networks, this article is about how he has been using all the popular social networks to create his distinctive image not only within the state but also in the entire country. Before joining social networks, Narendra Modi came up with his website, where he expresses his views on various on-goings and his participation in events.
Twitter Presence
In early January 2009, he came up with his Twitter account @narendramodi which has got nearly 900,000 followers till date.
And if you follow his tweets, you would see that the tweets are in the direction to encourage the youth. Many of his tweets contain #vivekananda150 which symbolizes the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.
“Your success is not measured in terms of what you obtained but what you become & what actions you do” nm4.in/ybFnfJ #vivekananda150
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 29, 2012
The objective is simple – Interact with the youth through these networks. He had also planned an online event on Google+ Hangout on 31st of August. For the event, he had asked people to post questions on his website which allowed Facebook and Twitter log in. The outcome was massive and within 3-4 days more than 6,000 questions were registered from across the globe and as per the reports, they were expecting more than 15,000 questions for the event. People were also asked to share their questions with hashtag of #ModiHangOut. The hashtag that has been trending from the 31st of August is still going strong as the top trending topic.
Facebook Presence
Narendra Modi came up with his official Facebook page on May 5th, 2009 and till date has got nearly 700,000 likes with good engagement rate. The content on both Facebook and Twitter is very much similar but Modi’s magic works here as well.
The page hasn’t got any flashy apps or heavy graphics but has got some basic YouTube and Twitter apps. But here again, the youth is the most popular age group (18-24) on his Facebook page and Ahmedabad, Gujarat is the most popular city.
YouTube and Google Hangout
YouTube channel of Narendra Modi is also popular amongst the users. With more than 11K subscribers and more than 1.5 million total video views, he’s making the most of YouTube. He is very much aware of the impact a video or live video conference can make in developing public relations.
Whether it’s Mr. Modi’s Japan visit or Swami Vivekananda Women Chess Event where more than 3,000 women chess players took part or his most talked about Google+ Hangout event, he’s very much active, effective and efficient in getting the maximum out of that.
Shall join Swami Vivekananda Women Chess Event with Advani ji & Viswanathan Anand shortly. You can join LIVE nm4.in/NLiwai
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 27, 2012
Ever since his communication about his Google+ Hangout was out, he had been the talk of the town. Till date, there are only two prominent leaders who have used Google+ Hangout to interact – Mr. Barak Obama and Julia Gillard. Narendra Modi has become third across the globe and first Indian leader to have used this media for interactions.
On 31st August, when the Hangout was scheduled at 8:00 p.m., it got delayed due to some technical faults to 1 hour. But during that, #ModiHangOut was trending top across India through all major cities. The event was successfully hosted by “The Singham” of Bollywood, Mr. Ajay Devgn. We’ll have to wait for the actual stats to roll out for this mega event. For now the below screen grab shows you how #ModiHangOut became a trending topic in major cities.
Whether he’s in the race for the PM or not in the next big probable election of 2014, is something we will have to wait for. But he’s surely winning the hearts of the youth across the nation through his next-gen steps. We’ll have to wait and see if his steps are in his favor or not during the upcoming state elections later this year.
What do you think of Narendra Modi’s social media presence and has the social presence influenced you?