Social Media and the Presidential Campaigns in Egypt

Egypt’s presidential elections are taking place on the 23rd and 24th of May. We only have 2 days to ago and the million dollar question is: who will win & will the elections take more than one round?

Social Media became a defining force in the presidential campaigns in Egypt post the #Jan25 revolution. It has become an integral part of the political landscape, helping determine winners and losers in elections, growing as a primary channel for campaigns to reach out to their constituents and provide open lines of communication.

Through social media, a wider group of voters found a way to more actively engage in political discussion and debates. Take #Monazarat as an example, this Twitter hashtag took place during the first televised presidential debate ever held in the Arab world. Like other mass media, Social Media has the ability to reach an audience and deliver an impression with the ability to persuade a voter’s opinion and compel them to act.

In USA for example, Google counted the number of views each of the main candidates and President Barack Obama received on YouTube during the month of February, 2012. Obama campaign generated more free advertising by fans spreading ad messages virally than the sum total of all the paid advertising of all the Republican candidates.

The number of views highlights how Social Media effectively serves as a channel for campaigns to generate a word-of-mouth effect among supporters. It also broadens the reach of their campaign messages at a fraction of what it would normally cost to do so on other platforms.

In case you missed it, here are few example of Egyptian presidential candidates’ presence on Social Media:

For all details about the presidential elections, log-on to www.elections.eg

We said this: Will campaigns that are more “social media savvy” ultimately garner more votes?