Abstract
Today’s political marketers are successfully driving target voters towards favourable attitude change (Henneberg, 2002). The first time voter group is an important target market in political marketing, and as identified in literature, social media and peer groups play a major role in influencing political attitudes of first time voters.This study aims to explore how first time voters form their political attitudes, from exposure to social media political campaigns and from online peer interactions. The Processes of Compliance, Identification and Internalization in the Social Influence theory was used as a theoretical lens; data was gathered through 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews, and thematic Analysis was used to analyze data, under an exhaustive coding process.Research findings indicate that first time voters’ political attitudes were mostly formed and driven on achieving personal goals; that is, individuals were more concerned with the long lasting effects of value congruence (Internalization), rather than the social effect (Compliance) or social anchorage (Identification) of behaviour. Further, online peer interactions on social media was a strong source of influence (for political attitude formation), than mere passive exposure to political campaigns on social media. The most influential peers were ‘high status peers’ with direct political connections, acting as strong opinion leaders. Furthermore, first time voters are influenced due to the perceived credibility of peers (through Internalization), as opposed to their controlling power (Compliance) or attractiveness (Identification).The Kelaniya Journal of Management, Vol. 3(1); 2014: 42-62
Highlights
Political Marketing is a growing trend throughout the world and within the current Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled society, an increasing number of politicians are using social media as a marketing / socialization tool to communicate with the electorate (Vergeer, Hermans, & Sam, 2011)
This study addresses the problem of “how do social media and peer interactions through social media, influence attitude formation, in the context of political marketing”
Political attitude formation takes place at the level of Compliance when an individual is influenced in order to get a favourable reaction from the other party
Summary
Political Marketing is a growing trend throughout the world and within the current ICT enabled society, an increasing number of politicians are using social media as a marketing / socialization tool to communicate with the electorate (Vergeer, Hermans, & Sam, 2011). This is apparent even in Sri Lanka, where politicians are especially targeting the youth in the country, who are heavy users of social media networks, and represent the total voting population significantly. Among relatively influential agents of socialization, previous studies have examined the influence of family, media, and peers on the development of consumer decisions patterns (Bush et al, 1999; Rao, Childers, & Dutta, 1991). As at the 1st of March, 2010, there were 41.54% of Facebook users out of the total number of online users in Sri Lanka (The World Factbook, 2010)
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