MNC tech firms ride election wave on social media

Leading multinational technology companies are taking advantage of the Lok Sabha elections to reach out to voters and build their brands.

Google, Microsoft and Twitter have been early movers in riding the social media wave in the world’s largest elections. It’s easy to see why; as S Prakash, a software engineer, puts it: Social media is an alternative to television to get real-time news on the elections.

Google has launched a ‘Know your candidates tool’ for the Lok Sabha Elections, while Microsoft has tied up with Network18/CNN-IBN to set up an analytics centre.

Similarly, Twitter and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have jointly launched an app to generate real-time social insights on the elections.

“This trend may not be a money making instrument for the multinational companies. But, it is good publicity and marketing for them,” says Vishal Tripathi, Principal Analyst at research firm Gartner. However, it is limited only to urban and semi urban regions, he adds.

Social media has been big in this election, with every political party using it and users often relying on it to track political activity. Multinational companies see this as a big opportunity to reach tech-savvy new voters.

“With a billion people gearing up to make their voices heard, there is a lot of data out there that can sometimes be confusing,” said Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik, in a statement. “Using cloud services, big data analysis and data visualisation will help CNN-IBN present that data in a manner that makes sense to Indian voters, and helps them engage with the election process much more than ever before.” Google launched its ‘Know Your Candidates’ tool as part of its election portal, ‘google.co.in/elections’. It provides information on each sitting Lok Sabha MP and contesting candidate, such as their educational background, financial details and social media presence (wherever available). This includes video bios of the candidates, provided by Ping networks.

The company created its first election tool seven years ago when its engineers noticed a huge increase in search traffic around the election period in the US.

Today, over 20 countries, including Malaysia, Thailand and now, India, have election pages that aid voters during election periods, says a company statement.

India has a large number of smartphone users and almost 100 million first-time voters. TCS and Twitter are trying to reach out to them through the iElect app, a tool to observe, analyse and participate in the social conversations around the elections.

The app makes real-time Twitter data and analytics around key political events and content accessible.

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