
2014 Lok Sabha elections have come to an end with the Bharatiya Janata Party securing the 272+ mark. The 16th general elections have been historic in every sense; technology and social media have played a sizable role for the first time. Earlier we looked at how social networks in the country have used their platform to bring politicians and voters closer. Twitter, which was the chosen platform for both conversation and controversy by political parties, also had some interesting integration.
With the six-week-long elections coming to an end, Twitter India has shared that the platform witnessed more than 56 million election-related Tweets from January 1 this year till May 12, when the polls ended.
Providing more numbers to chew on, Twitter points that: Each of the poll days saw between 5.4 lakh and 8.2 lakh election-related tweets. To give it a better perspective the data science team at Twitter has created an interesting visualisation. Click on the below map to play the 30 second video, don’t forget to zoom in the map to find detailed level voices specific to every region and corner of the country. The visualisation takes into consideration three players only – Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal.
Nice! RT @TwitterData: #IndiaElections: the whole vote in 30 seconds. Click this: http://t.co/mifCthKCzE #India2014 pic.twitter.com/beqT3T18CE
— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) May 14, 2014
While Twitter became the go to platform for polticians this year so did their selfie. Twitter has prepared a list of top ten election tweets. The cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar who casted his vote on his birthday stands at the top beating Modi’s inked finger selfie.
I have voted, have you? A wonderful start to my birthday, as a responsible citizen of our great nation. pic.twitter.com/RXAtisMwqq — sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) April 24, 2014
Selfie is in! Share yours using #SelfieWithModi & see what happens https://t.co/2s2BZ7GvuC pic.twitter.com/oDrCZztzo0
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 30, 2014
However, right now after a comprehensive victory, Modi’s latest tweet stands as the most RT’ed tweet ever from India.
This Tweet from @narendramodi is now his most RTd Tweet ever. https://t.co/Vg6XN4u2go
— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) May 16, 2014
Perspective: the number of RTs for @narendramodi‘s top Tweets, including today’s. https://t.co/Vg6XN4u2go pic.twitter.com/LnNbteYAuY
— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) May 16, 2014
Sought blessings from my Mother pic.twitter.com/OegXhartLx
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 16, 2014
Not only the platform but Twitter’s data has been integrated with television during this election. Social data (to be read as Twitter data) was being used extensively by television and other traditional mediums to boost their election coverage.
Whether it was the India Today Group’s Twitter debate show #YourVote2014 on “Headlines Today” or CNBC-TV18 using the iElect app (review) by TCS in association with Twitter India, media channels have leveraged Twitter in all possible ways.
Additionally with the help of Frrole and Twitter, TOI developed a Social News Hub. The real time online data was beautifully presented with dynamic visualizations, sorted by the day or week. Twitter has also created a list of data partnership stories.
Today, the 16th of May, 2014 has decided the country’s fate for the next five years. BJP comes to power after a decade with social media creating a significant impact. Compared with other popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter indeed shines in its efforts n India.