Paul John TNN
Ahmedabad: Try criticizing Gujarat CM Narendra Modi on social media and you will be ambushed by a cyber army.Praise him,and there will be hundreds joining the chorus.
If Modi has the strongest footprint in cyberspace,much of the credit goes to these 7,200 e-soldiers.Most of these war-room youth hail from the small towns of Gujarat,while the rest are from other states.They are a force multiplier for the Gujarat CM,who has gained a considerable following among the youth of urban India.
The sharp quips against Modi-baiters on the net are the coordinated effort of these youth,who use specialized software to add friends and Likes to Modi pages on Facebook and Twitter and also send mass messages.The young IT team is armed with social media tools like twitter dashboards,Facebook and Twitter blasters,and multiple accounts.Plus,a lot of time at hand.Their undying efforts are amply reflected in the more than 21.01 lakh Facebook Likes and 18.03 lakh Twitter followers that Modi has garnered.
Modis e-brigade is spearheaded by a team of 160-220 volunteers between 20 and 28 years of age from across the state.Students in their early twenties from Nadiad, Anand, Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar, and Banaskantha are trained by the BJPs IT cell generally in batches of 10- 25 in different districts of the state.
Nadiad,one of the most active IT cells,is headed by party worker Nandita Thakur.She encourages young tech graduates form DDIT Nadiad to handle Modi campaigns on social networks.These youngsters have successfully mobilized 7,200 active members through various groups in these networks.This massive network of Like Modi netizens then motivate other groups by posting messages and even create trending topics on Twitter,with multiple postings of hash-tagged terms like #pappu,#rambovspappu.
7,200 e-soldiers march for Narendra Modi
Paul John & Hitesh Chavda, TNN Jun 30, 2013, 04.48AM IST
AHMEDABAD/ NADIAD: A recent and successful operation of NaMo nerds - the zealous champions of Narendra Modi in cyberspace - demonstrated how the nerds aim to channel online fawning into real-life action.
The 'Narendra Modi Army', a popular Facebook group which operated from Gwarlior, managed to rustle up a crowd of protesters outside L K Advani's home after Modi was elected as the BJP's election campaign chief.
Modi's cyber-devotees - most of whom are volunteers - congregate in scores of online groups like the 'Narendra Modi Army'. Among the most active of such groups on Facebook are 'Narendra Modi 4 PM'; 'Bharat Maa Ka Lal' ; 'Bond of India 2014'; and 'Modi: Hit and Fit for PM 2014'. On Twitter, Modi fans run 54 accounts.
Though the BJP has not declared its prime ministerial candidate, Modi's virtual warriors are treating that as inevitability, creating the 'NaMoBharat' feed on Twitter and Facebook; and developing specialized android and iOS apps that enable micro-targeting on social networks.
While on targeting, it must be noted that any nerd who gets out of line is targeted with unrelenting aggression. For instance Partesh Patel, 27, who used to run 'Modi nu Gujarat' fan page on Facebook, today gets ominous late-night calls and vulgar messages on his social networking platform.
"I am being treated like this only because I left the BJP's IT cell," Patel says. "I was a volunteer there and I have more than 95,000 likes and an equally strong membership on my page even to this day. I now campaign for the Congress because volunteers like me who spent close to a decade campaigning for the BJP are not recognized."
The NaMo nerds, however, press on. They are showing the effectiveness of social media tools like Twitter dashboards and friend-adders in scaling up fan numbers. As for the BJP IT team itself, its core members are Hemang Jani and Maulik Bhagat.
The duo's team posts live updates on dozen-odd social media pages. Jani also employs a team of graphic designers who make cartoons which are popular on the net. The head of BJP's IT cell, Rajeeka Kacheria, a beautician, has introduced the 'BJPKemp' software that collated news reports from every constituency during the Gujarat assembly elections. The data was used to assess voter mood.
Youngsters who sustain the Modi buzz online are rewarded with the ultimate prize of fandom - an opportunity to meet Modi. "In Gujarat young college students are taken in batches by BJP zonal heads for an exclusive photo-op and meeting with Modi," says a senior IT cell member. "This is how the numbers are gathered."
Modi vs Rahul: Who's winning e-war?
What do people talk about on social media pages in relation to leading politicians of the country? A recent survey by Blogworks offers some insights. For example, the survey reveals that caste and religion are the most talked about subjects around Narendra Modi with 69,498 conversations. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi had spurred just 7,572 conversations on caste and religion. However, Gandhi evoked the most mentions around law and internal affairs.
Gandhi also received the maximum negative mentions around the theme of corruption, according to Blogworks. Interestingly, he has also received a high number of negative mentions for being portrayed as a youth icon, the survey says. Development and economy drove the most positive conversations for Modi, who also has a larger share of positive mentions when compared to Gandhi, claims the survey.
The key driver of positive conversations for Nitish Kumar is development and economy. But the negative mentions on this theme are in fact higher than the positive mentions.
"The social media has emerged as a new means of political dialogue - the anti-corruption and the Nirbhaya campaigns are examples," says a senior BJP IT cell member. "It has the power to drag one away from the conventional-media noise and put you in a peer-to-peer public discourse." He says opinions are formed through individual interactions with people one connects with on one's social networks and not through media. "These people will include family members, friends or colleagues with similar interests," he says. "It's a sort of word-of-mouth advertising."
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