With political parties trying to tap social media influencers in the election season, the Rajasthan government has come out with a first-of-its-kind policy to give advertisements to those with a significant following on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram along with print and electronic media.
On June 26, the Ashok Gehlot government issued a notification allowing advertisements to social media influencers ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs five lakh per month for posting government advertisements on their channels. The Gehlot administration wants to tap the social media space ahead of the Assembly elections slated for later this year.
According to the notification, the influencers are categorised into four groups – Group A with a following of at least 10 lakh followers will get a maximum of Rs five lakh per month for posting advertisements while the amount will be Rs 2 lakh for Group B influencers who have 5-10 lakh subscribers. Group C influencers with 1-5 lakh followers will get Rs 50,000 while Group D with over 10,000 followers will get advertisements up to Rs 10,000 per month.
Of late, political parties and governments have been reaching out to social media influencers and the trend is getting increasing attention, with top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi giving interviews to YouTube sensations instead of mainstream media during his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. Rahul’s YouTube channel also regularly puts out videos of his engagements.
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Not to be left behind and acknowledging the reach, the BJP too has started its outreach on YouTube. Recently, Union Ministers S Jaishankar, Piyush Goyal and Rajeev Chandrasekhar gave interviews to YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia while Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan sat with Raj Shamani. Gehlot himself sat for an interview with ‘The Lallantop’.
Abbin Theeppura of P-MARQ (Politique Marquer) told DH that reaching out to social media influencers is a relatively new initiative by governments though it has been done in the political consulting space for the last 7-8 years for election-related branding.
“These influencers will own a set of followers and fans, who are keen to watch whatever content they come up with. Difference between social media branding and traditional or conventional branding is that, social media branding initiatives can be measured, their reach and impact assessment can be done, which is not possible when it comes to conventional branding,” he said.
In India, Theeppura feels, social media users will only continue to grow. In turn, the number of new influencers will also grow, thereby increasing their hold on the social media space.
According to the Rajasthan government’s notification, social media influencers will have to provide proof of their activities on social media. Influencers in Group A should have posted at least 100 videos or 150 posts in the last six months while the requirement is 60 videos or 100 posts in Group B, 30 videos or 50 posts in Group C, and 15 videos or 30 posts in Group D.
It is also to be ensured that advertisement reaches 5 per cent of the total subscribers or followers of the handle. The influencers will also have to provide social media analytics reports. Advertisements will be issued to influencers only if their pages or accounts are in operation for at least one year.