Social Media Strategy Review: Aam Aadmi Party Punjab

India’s leading political startup, Aam Aadmi Party is on an all time expansion spree, exploring new territories for governance. The party recently forayed into the states of Punjab, Goa, and Gujarat. With the objective of building a new alternative for voters in India, Aam Aadmi Party has made significant in-roads towards tangible success in the assembly elections

Re-launching our series of reporting political marketing on social media, we bring to you a breakdown of social media strategy AAP Punjab employed this election season.

Content Strategy 

The Communication strategy revolved around the ideology of fighting against corruption, promoting transparency and pursuing grassroots democracy both within and outside the organization. The content for this long drawn campaign has been articulated well, keeping in mind the symbolic icons of Aam Aadmi Party, the objective at hand and the elements of vernacular communication.

The core communication was built around the promise of cleaning Punjab with citizen-led activism and the party managed to mobilize youth volunteers under the umbrella of JhaaduWale. A symbolic title for people who support AAP’s clarion call to clean Punjab for the greater good. The website lets users create profile picture with a footer insert of party’s icon and the website as well.

Supporting this inclusive approach the party’s official handle, the leading candidates and campaigners covered an array of topics which interest the people of Punjab right from the issues of drug menace to electricity and agriculture.

The Party also tried to draw parallels between the incumbent CM Parkash Singh Badal , Captain Amarinder Singh vs Arvind Kejriwal or Sukhbir Singh Badal vs Manish Sisodia.

With these star campaigners and leading candidates like Bhagwant Mann, Sanjay Singh, and Gurpreet Ghugghi, Aam Aadmi Party also displayed strength in support and numbers with numerous rally coverage, live video sessions and the position statement, Punjab AAP de naal or Punjab Kejriwal de naal.

The tone and tenor followed the lead and aggression of party’s icon - Arvind Kejriwal, accusing the opponents with allegations ranging from corruption to drug trafficking and conjectural politics.

The Social Media Mix

In a relatively shorter span of time, Aam Aadmi Party has built a community of loyalists and brand advocates, owing to progressive politics and the fresh approach. Though Arvind Kejriwal’s timely gimmicks keep the memes mills up and running when it comes to a better alternative people tend to sway towards AAP.

Aam Aadmi Party Punjab boasts of 35k+ followers on Twitter and 9L+ Likes on Facebook. The party ran an auto responder WhatsApp number which served as an information dissemination desk. The visual tweets got an average of 50+ RT’s while the video based tweets got over 100 RT’s and some of the exceptional tweets have also touched over 500 RT’s. The engagement numbers on Facebook are really promising with over 1L views for some keystone videos while the reactions for posts vary from 2k to up 50k users engaged. The campaign is supported by the individual following of leading campaigners and candidates.

Famous Punjabi singer @igippygrewal supports @AamAadmiParty in. #Punjab . pic.twitter.com/2ZGPSUZdYI

— Vikas Yogi (@vikaskyogi) February 4, 2017

The spread on Twitter included news clippings, images from rallies, video messages from Arvind Kejriwal, support gestures from artists like Sukh Ghaman and Kapil Sharma and Live sessions from road shows across nooks and corners of Punjab.

Watch @ArvindKejriwal 's message on the false propaganda being spread by Congress-Akali Dal. Punjabis should be aware of their dirty tricks pic.twitter.com/PtLd3b7r0h

— AAP Punjab (@AAPPunjab2017) February 2, 2017

Kapil Sharma endorses AAP's Gurpreet Singh Waraich ! Must watch & RT. pic.twitter.com/uIqe1fImjK

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) February 1, 2017

The party was consistent with some hashtags which go around the theme of #Jhaaduwale for volunteers and #AAPway for the promises made by the party. While on Facebook the approach was slightly different with more live video content and vernacular updates which followed the communication strategy entailed above.

Nearing the end of the campaign AAP Punjab took the initiative of ensuring that the electronic voting machines are safe and protected from malpractices, #AAPProtectsEVMs

Summing Up

Aam Aadmi Party has played the best of their strength on Social Media, whether it is the use of the iconic imagery with Jhaadu or the video messages from Arvind Kejriwal on pressing issues. The party stuck to the core of ambush, transparency and promise for the people of Punjab. The Exit Polls have a mixed opinion on fortune of AAP in Punjab, but the social media sentiment suggest victory bells for the debutante in Punjab Assembly Elections.

Share your thoughts about the social media strategy AAP adopted in Punjab and do stay tuned to this series to learn more about the social media strategies from INC Punjab and SAD / BJP Punjab!