Social Media and the Iranian Elections

Politics is always about the people.

People always require to communicate.

Social media is always about communication.

In context of the Iranian elections, the effect of the online social media network is as noticeable as it is surprising. With free speech curtailed and the press/media censored, it is obvious that people will nurture their natural urge to communicate through the next easiest available media.

Internet enabled phones, broadband / wifi connections have all brought the online social networking platforms closer to the people.

However, in the context of the elections there were a few important things that created this wave of social media response:

1. Age of the voting group
A majority of the voting population in this election, is less than 30. This means that a vast number of tech-savvy, educated, information-hungry people would be influencing the decision of who reaches the high office.

2. Effort to Utilize social media
With a majority of the voters under the age of 30, those in the political office suddenly realized that their target audience was just a few clicks away! The non-incumbents realized this early on and embraced it. Spearheading outreach campaigns and creating a presence on Youtube, Facebook and other social media platforms has already given one of the non-incumbents, nearly 35,000 supporters.

3. No Need for a Marketing message
The uniqueness of this scenario was that there was no need for a marketing message. With one party in the elections making outrageous claims, people sought out the truth. Information became the marketing message. Inflation rates, oil revenues, other state revenues, unemployment rates, previous government's track record - these were the parameters that were searched for and each search sparked off a debate and a discussion.

A couple of links that would be a favorable read are:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1903841,00.html

http://www.scoop44.com/2009/06/10/young-iranians-could-sway-presidential-electio/