Tapping social media to get poll messages across

Info on protocols, dos and don’ts posted on Thiruvananthapuram Collector’s FB page regularly

Thiruvananthapuram District Collector Navjot Khosa.

As social media plays a strategic role in influencing voters in the local body elections in view of the pandemic situation, it is also the district administration’s go-to option to reach out to people, candidates and political parties over and over again.

District Collector Navjot Khosa says it is important to push out consistently the message of observing COVID-19 protocols during electioneering. The Collector’s Facebook page is already posting such content through posters designed in light of the guidelines issued by the State Election Commission.

Ms. Khosa says the district administration wants to remind everyone about the things to keep in mind such as the model code of conduct since the campaigning and nomination phase is on. As polling comes nearer, they will touch upon it too.

No initiative has yet been taken to reach out to people through WhatsApp.

Good reach

Facebook, she says, has a good reach going by the response to the messages already posted. “That has been the experience during the floods and my personal experience during COVID-19 management. Given the time and circumstances right now, we will be using Facebook.”

The Collector also plans to make a video this weekend with an appeal to the people and post it on her official page.

The focus is now on election-related directions issued against the backdrop of COVID-19. These guidelines are transformed into catchy posters by a team of volunteers on COVID-19 duty at the Collectorate.

The team is also working on a series of posters based on directions related to green elections issued by the State Election Commission and the Suchitwa Mission. A couple of posters on dos and don’ts, how to avoid plastics and so on categorised as per what voters, political parties, and candidates need to do are set to be issued daily.

Twitter, Insta soon

The Collector has also given directions for more focus on Instagram and Twitter. These two platforms of the district administration will likely become live soon.

The District Information Office also posts election-related news and other content on its Facebook page regularly to ensure accuracy in information dissemination.