Driving political issues with political brand storytelling on social media: an online brand persona perspective
Numerous South African political parties have a social media presence to create more awareness around the political issues which they stand for, and thus to attract more voters. Nowadays political parties act as political brands and adopt brand strategies to gain a competitive advantage over opposi...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Johannesburg
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Communicare |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/2182 |
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| _version_ | 1832593864602419200 |
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| author | Helena van Wyk Charmaine Du Plessis |
| author_facet | Helena van Wyk Charmaine Du Plessis |
| author_sort | Helena van Wyk |
| collection | DOAJ |
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Numerous South African political parties have a social media presence to create more awareness around the political issues which they stand for, and thus to attract more voters. Nowadays political parties act as political brands and adopt brand strategies to gain a competitive advantage over opposition parties. This article proposes adopting a social identity theory as a novel approach to how political brands could drive political issues on social media. It is further suggested that due to the complexity of the South African political scene, more attention could be paid to how political brands could leverage political brand stories in conjunction with an online political brand persona on social media to position themselves in a chaotic online political space. To test this, semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with communication professionals in South African public relations agencies who were responsible for creating content for political parties’ Facebook and Twitter accounts. Four themes that became evident in the data collectively indicate that political brands will successfully drive political issues on social media only when they are able to connect emotionally with the political consumer. In this regard, an online political brand persona may be critical in not only eliciting an emotional reaction from political consumers, but also establishing a long-term connection with them based on how credible the political brand is in terms of what they care about and their ability to solve issues.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-649dac4210d04a57a71d51ddbe8dbb41 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0259-0069 2957-7950 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | University of Johannesburg |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communicare |
| spelling | doaj-art-649dac4210d04a57a71d51ddbe8dbb412025-01-20T08:42:21ZengUniversity of JohannesburgCommunicare0259-00692957-79502023-07-0142110.36615/jcsa.v42i1.2182Driving political issues with political brand storytelling on social media: an online brand persona perspectiveHelena van Wyk0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6164-2099Charmaine Du Plessis 1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9977-8987a:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:3:"IIE";}UNISA Numerous South African political parties have a social media presence to create more awareness around the political issues which they stand for, and thus to attract more voters. Nowadays political parties act as political brands and adopt brand strategies to gain a competitive advantage over opposition parties. This article proposes adopting a social identity theory as a novel approach to how political brands could drive political issues on social media. It is further suggested that due to the complexity of the South African political scene, more attention could be paid to how political brands could leverage political brand stories in conjunction with an online political brand persona on social media to position themselves in a chaotic online political space. To test this, semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with communication professionals in South African public relations agencies who were responsible for creating content for political parties’ Facebook and Twitter accounts. Four themes that became evident in the data collectively indicate that political brands will successfully drive political issues on social media only when they are able to connect emotionally with the political consumer. In this regard, an online political brand persona may be critical in not only eliciting an emotional reaction from political consumers, but also establishing a long-term connection with them based on how credible the political brand is in terms of what they care about and their ability to solve issues. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/2182online political brand personapolitical brandpolitical consumersocial identity theorysocial media-based political brand storytelling |
| spellingShingle | Helena van Wyk Charmaine Du Plessis Driving political issues with political brand storytelling on social media: an online brand persona perspective Communicare online political brand persona political brand political consumer social identity theory social media-based political brand storytelling |
| title | Driving political issues with political brand storytelling on social media: an online brand persona perspective |
| title_full | Driving political issues with political brand storytelling on social media: an online brand persona perspective |
| title_fullStr | Driving political issues with political brand storytelling on social media: an online brand persona perspective |
| title_full_unstemmed | Driving political issues with political brand storytelling on social media: an online brand persona perspective |
| title_short | Driving political issues with political brand storytelling on social media: an online brand persona perspective |
| title_sort | driving political issues with political brand storytelling on social media an online brand persona perspective |
| topic | online political brand persona political brand political consumer social identity theory social media-based political brand storytelling |
| url | https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/2182 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT helenavanwyk drivingpoliticalissueswithpoliticalbrandstorytellingonsocialmediaanonlinebrandpersonaperspective AT charmaineduplessis drivingpoliticalissueswithpoliticalbrandstorytellingonsocialmediaanonlinebrandpersonaperspective |