ENGAGING popular social media influencers could increase a political party’s visibility and expose it to a wider audience especially the younger generation, said political analysts.
According to Associate Professor Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi, who is a research fellow at Universiti Malaya’s (UM) Centre for Democracy and Elections the use of social media influencers has become more important these days.
“A political party or their leaders who want to have wider publicity for their party engage social media influencers as the latter tends to have thousands or even millions of followers in the online sphere,” he told The Borneo Post.
Awang Azman also noted that such publicity strategy was already used by political parties and it was expected to be further utilised during the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15).
“The strategy could attract audiences who are not the usual supporters of the party to gain political points. Party members are also seemingly more passionate and excited to strengthen the trust of the public towards their party when engaging with social media influencers,” he elaborated.
“Through popular influencers, voters could get to know a political party and the thinking of the party can also be promoted via the reach of the influencers.”
The news portal also cited Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) president Datuk Seri Sim Kui Hian who recently hosted Singaporean comedian-turned social media influencer Wang Lei on his social media platforms to promote Sarawakian food and heritage.
Meanwhile, Prof James Chin, a professor of Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia told Borneo Post that he was not surprised that Sim had engaged popular social media influencers to boost his reach on the digital sphere.
“It is my understanding that SUPP had hired an outside firm to handle its multimedia and social media from as early as 2016 when Dr Sim took over SUPP,” he remarked to the news portal.
However, Chin pointed out that he was surprised that Sim – who is Sarawak deputy premier – had engaged a Singaporean-based social media influencer instead of Sarawak-based ones.
He also noted that it was still too early to tell if engaging with popular social media influencers would “add value” to the party.
“Yes, it would add value in the sense that SUPP will have a far greater reach in terms of the young people who constantly watch TikTok and Instagram (content) but they don’t really do anything to the existing SUPP members,” he added.
According to Chin most of SUPP’s hardcore supporters are from the older generation; thus, he felt that Sim was now trying to reach out to a new generation of potential party supporters.
Nevertheless, he warned that there were downsides in engaging social media to increase a party’s visibility as even the most “innocent” postings could fall victim to the “outrage” industry.
“Sometimes, the most innocent postings – if you are not careful and use the wrong words – will ‘blow up’ in the online world,” Chin said. – June 17, 2022
