With most Thais on social media, online campaigning was not optional in the May 14 general election. Move Forward Party and Pita Limjaroenrat dominated social media, says this University of Sydney senior lecturer.
While all major political parties were actively campaigning online, the MFP’s influence far outstripped their opponents. The key to the MFP’s online success was its fan base, who came together, largely organically, to promote and support the party.
Compared to other parties, Thai people talked, shared and interacted with the MFP online the most. This made MFP content most visible to social media users as platform algorithms prioritise the most popular content. Yet after 60 days, Pita’s Facebook support base grew by more than 200 per cent and his posts attracted nearly 300 per cent more than the posts of all the other party leaders combined. Each of Pita’s posts garnered 59,000 interactions - 99 per cent of these were positive.These rates of engagement are crucial to online campaigning success - algorithms prioritise content that is highly engaged with.
TikTok - Thailand’s fastest-growing social media platform - emerged as the newest campaigning platform for major political parties. In terms of TikTok popularity, the MFP won in a landslide. The same pattern is not observed for other parties, which suggests that the MFP has significant competitive leverage online: It has the strongest and most active online support base.But how did the MFP grow such a big and committed fan base so fast with a small campaigning budget? Part of the party’s success was its clear branding: MFP stood for structural change, which included reforming the monarchy and the military. Voters understood what the MFP stood for and could identify with it.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Commentary: Assumptions about language and identity may not just be wrong, they can be hurtfulA majority of Singaporeans view English proficiency as a top criterion for new Singapore citizens, but CNA’s Erin Low has sometimes felt like an outlier for speaking English by default.
Read more »
Commentary: Oppenheimer is a great film about the wrong manFormer US president Harry Truman, travestied in Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer, is the one who made the foundational decisions that shaped the world we live in now, says the Financial Times’ Janan Ganesh.
Read more »
Commentary: ASEAN shouldn’t have high expectations of new G7 climate clubThe G7’s proposal for a new climate club may fall short if its creators fail to separate geopolitical concerns from pressing environmental ones, says this ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute researcher.
Read more »
Commentary: India's rice export ban will damage its claim to lead the Global SouthThe country’s ill-advised ban on many rice exports will drive up prices for the poorest countries unless they lobby for exceptions, says Mihir Sharma for Bloomberg Opinion.
Read more »
Commentary: Oppenheimer could trigger useful discussion on nuclear weapons for JapanChristopher Nolan's biopic has triggered a debate on the rights and wrongs of dropping the nuclear bomb. It could lead to more useful discourse in Japan - assuming the movie is ever released there, says Bloomberg Opinion’s Gearoid Reidy.
Read more »
Commentary: Tech solutions and loss sharing won’t be enough without vigilance against scamsScammers will keep coming for our CPF savings or bank accounts. Making scams harder and riskier for criminals or developing ways to share losses aren’t a panacea, says Reed Smith lawyer Bryan Tan.
Read more »