Twitter as Branding Tool: An Analysis of Tweets of Indian National Political Parties

For decades, political parties in India were mostly dependent on mass media to communicate with their target group. Despite this, Politicians often would accuse the journilist and media houses, accusing that media has been bias against them and their statements have been twisted. This love-hate relationship between media and politician took a new turn when Twitter changed the scenario. Now political parties got the opportunities to do the direct branding with their consistent tweets. Considering the changed scenario, researchers decided to delve into the situation and determine the way the so called major national political parties, i.e. BJP and Congress, are handling this new tool. For this purpose, researchers analyzed the content of tweets sent through the official Twitter handle of these political parties during the recent election held of five states. The result showcases how petty issues are getting leverage over the real problems in this branding exercise.