The competition for young voters is heating up online, with major political parties bringing the fight to Instagram in this year’s new battlefield.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) made strides last year with a new podcast and an increased Instagram presence on the party’s and President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) accounts.
Podcasts are unlike social media platforms, DPP online community center director Fan Kang-hao (范綱皓) said on Monday last week, as listeners are more engaged and often go back to listen to older episodes after hearing the latest.
Photo from Tsai Ing-wen’s Instagram account
As podcast episodes are not shared on Facebook or other social media in the same way as photographs and videos, Fan said.
Thus, the party has over the past half year been adapting its strategy to better cater to podcast listeners, he said.
Online audiences are becoming further divided among platforms, making it more difficult and costlier for parties to reach voters, he said.
Photo: The Chinese Nationalist Party’s Facebook page
For instance, topics under vigorous debate on Facebook might not resonate with younger people who no longer use the site, limiting the way topics emerge in certain social groups, he said.
However, particularly “hot” topics present an opportunity to reach across this divide, Fan said.
In October last year when the world’s largest freediving association removed Taiwan’s national flag during a live broadcast at China’s request, Tsai on Facebook and Instagram called on her followers to share their diving photographs in support of Taiwan’s athletes.
This campaign not only earned the president more followers, but also reached people she might not have been able to otherwise, he said.
However, not many people under the age of 30 use Facebook, making Instagram the new battlefield for young voters, Fan said.
As Instagram centers photos and videos, posts cannot contain as much text as on Facebook, he said.
This battle for image attention began last year and continues, he said, adding that the challenge for politicians is to train their staff in techniques for producing image-based content.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is also looking to Instagram to reach young and undecided voters, in addition to resuming its regular online broadcasts and launching a new English-language podcast.
Aside from the Instagram account to be created soon, the party also plans to test the water with other social networks, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Lin Chia-hsing (林家興) said on Jan. 21.
Podcasts are being created by the committee and the KMT’s international department, Lin said.
The party is also considering using TikTok to appeal to Taiwan’s under-20 demographic, despite the platform’s political sensitivity.
Lin said that the KMT, like the DPP, also believes that audiences are becoming more sectionalized, apart from YouTube.
As a 35-year-old, Lin is in the Facebook generation, but people younger than 30 are mostly on Instagram, he said.
College students enjoy using the online forum Dcard, while people in grade school prefer TikTok, he said, adding that the KMT must use these platforms to reach young voters.
The generation of the Sunflower movement is in their 30s and has been “thoroughly brainwashed” by the DPP, Lin said.
However, people in their 20s do not necessarily identify with the DPP, leaving room for the KMT to win their favor, he said.
Teenagers present an even greater opportunity for the party, as their political values are still fluid, Lin said.
Even though they have received a nativist education, young people have a strong reactionary impulse that the KMT could tap into to help acquaint them with the party, he added.
Lin said the party’s Facebook presence could open discussions on lively topics instead of focusing on political controversies and holidays.
The party would also revive its online broadcasts, although with different content and guests — including non-KMT members — focusing on topics of interest to more people, he added.
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