Political parties leave no stone unturned when canvassing during elections, adopting any strategy that will take their message to the people and fetch them votes come D-Day.
That’s how Periscope, a live video streaming app, entered the picture this election season for the very first time.
Political parties in Tamil Nadu are studying and lining up cadre who can handle live video streaming during campaigns. Not only the big political parties, such as the DMK, the AIADMK, and the BJP, even smaller parties are trying to understand what this app is and want it to utilise it.
In Tamil Nadu, DMK leader M.K. Stalin was the first to use Periscope during his ‘Namakku Naame’ tour.
“In the last three months we had five public meetings live streamed on Periscope on behalf of Mr. Stalin. He has more than 70 lakh followers on Facebook and we update the Periscope streaming details there and on his Twitter page so that people will know the event details,” says one of Mr. Stalin’s social media managers. “Periscope will be extensively used at all meetings, campaigns this election season,” he added. A special team of experts in shooting videos have been roped in for this purpose.
The speeches of Mr. Stalin’s father and DMK chief M. Karunanidhi will also be streamed. “We find this to be a useful tool because viewers can also comment on the live-stream and send hearts [similar to the like button that we use on Facebook] if they like the video. This will help us understand people’s perception,” says N. Naveen, a social media strategist.
He and his colleague S. Suresh plan to live-stream all the campaigns, meetings and other election-related activities.
The duo feel this would attract eyeballs of the tech-savvy youth younger audience who would otherwise not come for campaigns and public meetings.
Tight-lipped
The AIADMK reportedly also has plans to use the app but is unwilling to divulge its strategy at this stage.
One of the persons involved in the social media campaign says: “Yes, Periscope is a part of the social media activity.”
S.R. Sekhar, who handles social media for the BJP says the party is “ studying the advantages of Periscope,” and confirms “it will be a part of our social media activity.”Not only the cities, candidates in various districts are also asking their social media teams to find a way to use this app.
Social media managers don’t expect a dramatic change but feel that the appwill make a difference by helping them reach out to more people.
Parties feel it'll help them reach out to tech-sayy youngsters
who may not want to attend rallies
