Kochi: The campaigners who focus on the social media are relying on Facebook alone and are yet to adopt the new techniques online. The candidates are spamming Facebook with posts in a desperate attempt to woo the voters. Just like operating a private account, they also flood Facebook with photos of the respective candidates posing with voters. Some share campaign videos, posters seeking votes and routine status updates.
Veteran leaders and sitting MLAs still manage to get responses from netizens, but only a few such as CPM candidate M.V. Nikesh Kumar (he got 97,000 likes in a short span) have made gains on the social media in the run-up to the polls. We still fail in using the Big Data or using Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME), effective ways to analyse the trend online.
On an average, Google changes the algorithm 600 times a year. So if there is no change in the campaign methods, the internet may not help the candidates when it comes to elections, experts feel. Mr K. Jaya Kumar, an expert, opines that many are not even using basic tools like Google Trends.
According to him, voters are not only on Facebook and other social media sites. Just like any other subject, they also turn to Google to get the latest news about their favourite candidate or his rival. Mr Jaya Kumar feels that SEME is a good way to get the voters’ attention to the news links or opinions of the candidate on the internet.
The SEME shows the change in a person's preference from manipulations of search results by search engine providers. Several studies have come out indicating that such manipulations could shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more and up to 80 percent in some places.
