“Mind the gap”: to succeed in marketing politics, think of social media innovation

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to explore the relationships between political marketing via social media and young voters’ political participation in Ghana. Additionally, this study examines the mediating role political efficacy plays in enhancing the relationship. Design/methodology/approach With a positivist mindset, and adopting the survey strategy, data gathered from the questionnaire administered from the sampled 320 young voters (18-29 years) in Greater Accra were quantitatively analyzed. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to assess and confirm the proposed scales validity and the relationships of the research model. Findings The study revealed that a political party or candidate’s ability to achieve political participation from Ghanaian young voters’ is dependent on how effective they build customer relationship or gaining visibility through social media. In addition, the study showed that political efficacy mediates the relationship between customer relationship building or gaining visibility through social media and political participation among Ghana young voters. Thus, young voters in Ghana must see themselves to have a say in the affairs of political parties through the political messages they gather from social media platforms to enhance their political participation activities. Practical implications The results of this paper will enable political marketers and politicians not only in Ghana but across the globe, to better understand how social media as a communication tool could be used to positively influence users’ political participation. Originality/value Considering the uniqueness of this study in a Ghanaian context, this paper is the first of its kind to use the social capital theory in examining the mediating role political efficacy plays in enhancing the relationship between political marketing on social media and young voters’ political participation.

The Influence of Political Marketing via Social Media on Political Participation: A Mediated Moderation Through Political Efficacy and Political Interest

“…Customer relationship building is the activities that aim to develop and manage the relationships between the existing and the new customers (Anim et al, 2019). Dale et al (2006) argue regarding political campaigns that the conventional non-social interaction between governmental entities and their constituents has become less successful.…”

“…Social media is a simple tool that influences the political process, which allows political parties to communicate, interact, inspire voters, and improve their political knowledge (Eijaz, 2013), cited in (Tufail et al, 2015). According to Anim et al (2019), political party or candidate's capacities to win supporters depends on how well they develop client relationships or obtain prominence on social media, hence raising political engagement and group activities. Therefore, this study posits the following hypothesis:…”

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that a variety of factors can explain political participation. These factors include: political interest (Gabriel, 2004;Oni et al, 2017), perceived congruence (Kusumorani et al, 2019), political marketing via social media (Anim et al, 2019), political efficacy (Reichert et al, 2018), personality traits (Hatemi et al, 2015) and individual resources (Verba et al, 1995). Recent study also investigates the effect of political efficacy as a mediator in explaining the link between political marketing campaigns on social media and political participation (Anim et al, 2019).…”

“…Globally, political participation has been continuously falling from year to year (Fang, 2011). Numerous arguments are made by academics to explain the factors of the fall in political participation (Shapland, 2015;Hajjar, 2018;Anim et al, 2019). Due to the obvious reduction and ongoing decline in the level of political participation in Lebanon, the issue of political participation has become critical (Thomas, 2018).…”

“…Previous studies revealed that political interest and political efficacy are among the most significant antecedents of citizens' political participation (Reichert et al, 2017;Oni et al, 2017;Baber, 2020). Anim et al (2019) revealed that customer relations building and visibility via social media influence citizens' political participation. However, all of these studies have pointed out that there is a need for further empirical research to fully comprehend the interactions of the various variables that mediate or moderate the relationships between predictor variables and citizens' political participation.…”