Social media: Congress beating BJP at their own game
A party leader said under Shrinate, the social media team has done a tremendous job in the last year as it has been able to beat the ruling BJP
Representative image (Photo: IANS)
NEW DELHI: With the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections less than a year away, the Congress has galvanised its social media to reach the people. In last one year, the grand-old party has been able to outsmart the tech savvy BJP in terms of its reach.
According to party leaders, Supriya Shrinate, a journalist turned politician, who took over the reins of the social media and digital platforms department on June 22 last year has brought a tremendous change in the party’s aggressive stand on social media platforms.
A party leader said under Shrinate, the social media team has done a tremendous job in the last year as it has been able to beat the ruling BJP, which is known for taking online campaigns to next level.
The party leader said that on Facebook, the Congress had a reach of 13.78 million in July last year which in May 2023 stood at 15.91 million reach, registering a growth of 15.47 per cent.
Similarly, on YouTube, the party used to receive 21.56 million views which has in May 2023 grew to 51.71 million views, registering a growth of 139.8 per cent.
The party leader said that under Shrinate, the Congress has left a massive impression on Instagram, which is known for engaging youth.
The party leader said that in July last year, the engagement on Instagram stood at 1.45 million, whereas in May 2023 it has now reached 20.2 million, registering a growth of over 1,290.4 per cent.
Even on Twitter, the Congress has been able to leave a special mark with its engaging posts.
“In July last year, the impression of Congress on Twitter stood at 48.3 million whereas in May this year it reached 165.8 million impressions, registering a growth of 242.93 per cent,” the party leader said.
The party leader further highlighted that the engagement of the Congress has been such on the social media platforms that it is leaving the BJP faraway in terms of the reach of its posts and people engagement.
He said that between June 5 to July 2 this year, Congress shared 560 contents on its official Facebook handle which has 6.1 million follower and it received 20.2 k new page likes, whereas the BJP, which has 16 million page likes on its official Facebook page, received only a page like of 2.2k people despite posting 500 contents on its platform.
The party leader also said that the Congress has been able to keep the BJP far behind on YouTube.
Sharing the data, the party leader said that in January this year, Congress was able to get 73.6 million views on its posts, whereas the BJP could manage only 6.21 million views. In February, the views of the Congress dropped to 25.83 million but it remained far ahead of the BJP as it could manage to get 13.31 million views.
In April this year, the BJP outnumbered the Congress on YouTube with 38.1 million views with the grand old party getting 28.88 million views on its posts.
However, in May the Congress once again made a comeback and got 51.61 million views on its posts as compared to 26.6 million on BJP’s YouTube posts. Even in June the Congress remained ahead of the BJP in terms of views, with the grand old party getting 27.2 million views on its posts as compared to BJP’s 17.54 million views.
The party leader also said that the subscribers of the Congress on YouTube in June this year saw 70k new subscribers as compared to 60k new subscribers for the BJP.
The party leader said that one of the main reasons behind the rise of the Congress reach on social media is also credited to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, which was used on all social media platforms prominently.
The party leader further said that the Congress, which earlier used to react on the BJP posts has now changed the game on the social media platforms as it is making the BJP to react on its posts and also setting the agenda.
“Earlier, we used to react on BJP’s posts but now things have changed as the ruling party is forced to react on the Congress posts and it is the grand old party, which is setting the agenda on most of the common issues of the public,” the party leader said.
Sharing the example, the party leader said that Congress has been getting tremendous response on its Twitter page where the BJP has reacted to its posts.
On a tweet from June 9 this year, the Congress got 2.43 million views whereas the BJP which reacted to that tweet got only 1 million views. Even in likes and retweets, the Congress was far ahead of the BJP.
Similarly, the Congress tweet from its official Twitter handle on May 28 got 5.3 million views, and the BJP reaction on the same post got only 1.7 million views. Even in retweets and likes the BJP remained far behind.
The Congress, which is considered to react late to adopt new technologies has now got shot in its arm by adopting the new age techniques to connect with the people. The party has earlier witnessed a similar kind of aggression on the social media handles when Divya Spandana handled the social media team.
The party leader said that the Congress social media is currently having a team of 65 professionals, who keep on working on the posts from the press conferences of the party and also keep on making some contents on the issues of the people.
