Time editors, POTY or not Modi rules digital like a boss

Meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Most followed Indian politician on Twitter with eight point five nine million followers. Featured in 20 per cent (11.1 million) of all election related tweets. 26 million likes on Facebook page. First Indian politician to open an account on Google Plus and YouTube.

Modi has, indeed, hegemonised the internet and social media.

In 2005, the internet was just beginning to spread rapidly in India, but Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, had embarked on a dream to rule the social media. Starting by registering his domain www.narendramodi.in in February 2005, his iconic journey to become the undisputed master of internet has given him the tag of India’s first social media prime minister.

His victory tweet post the announcement of the Lok Sabha results was retweeted 70,513 times, making it the most retweeted tweet in India ever, and has been deemed the Golden tweet of 2014 by Twitter.

Recently, Modi won the reader poll for the Time “Person of the Year 2014”. He received more than 16 per cent of the total five million votes cast. As per Time, apart from US, Indians voted the most in the poll, which led Modi to win the poll.

But the question arises that how did Modi, with a traditionalistic RSS pracharak background, zoomed his way to master the digital world?

Although much has been debated and deliberated, I believe Modi primarily focused on three things which established his digital supremacy.

1) Choosing the right team

Whether it is online or military, battles are never won alone. A leader cannot be a leader unless backed by a robust and dedicated team. Though India witnessed a nationwide Modi wave, when it comes to social media, he was backed by a strong team of professionals who facilitated his ascend to the top. There are three particular people who were instrumental in catapulting him to the pinnacle of the digital world.

Hiren Joshi, an officer on special duty to Modi when he was the Gujarat CM, was chosen in 2008 to work with him. Modi’s blogs, websites, Twitter and Facebook account are managed by him. He has conceptualised and executed many innovative plans such as ensuring Modi’s tweets were translated in various languages and launching Modi’s website in Hindi and Sanskrit.

Arvind Gupta, an NRI with an IIT degree, launched the National Digital Operations Centre (NDOC) in BJP’s headquarters in 2013, which micromanaged the Modi’s election campaign. He designed and executed the “Mission 272+”, which used every form of technology to connect Modi with the public. Modi’s videos and speeches were literally bombarded across WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Rajesh Jain, an internet entrepreneur, designed the voter registration drive campaign in colleges and the NaMo volunteer programme, which helped Modi become a famous figure in among millions of youth. Along with BG Mahesh, an IT professional, he launched “India272.com”, which further widened Modi’s support base. He even put in his own money to start the pro-Modi website “NitiCentral”.

By leveraging the internet media extensively as a means to challenge the monopoly of television channels and inundate every social media channel with Modi’s speeches and campaign videos, Modi’s team created a massive pro-Modi base online who were spread all across the country and defended any right-wing or Modi criticism with sharpest possible words.

2) Understanding the future

By 2020, India is set to become the world’s youngest country with 64 per cent of its population in the working age group. At 302 million internet users by end of December 2014, India will overtake (if not already) the United States as the second largest country in the world in terms of number of internet users with penetration of around 24 percent. Around 173 million or 57 per cent of Indian internet users access internet from their mobile phones. This is India’s future and Modi understood it very well.

If we have to define three things the youth can’t live without, the most probable answers would be mobile, internet and WhatApp. Modi’s team’s persistent and targeted approach to reach out to the largest youth population in the world, worked brilliantly. College students were going crazy about Modi, irrespective of not knowing much about him and his work.

Additionally, the BJP’s youth wing launched the “Campus Ambassador Programme” across thousands of colleges and universities, where the chosen ambassador involved the students in organising voter registration drives, run “Modi Cafes” and prepared inputs for the “National Youth Policy”. Through the programme, Modi not only created awareness about the importance of voting, but also cemented his position as the most admired leader amongst the youth, which formed a majority of the internet user base; therefore killing two birds with one arrow.

3) Striking at the right time

There is a famous quote which goes like this: “It’s always about timing. If it’s too soon, no one understands. If it’s too late, everyone’s forgotten”. Modi’s plan to employ the growing power of internet and social media into propelling his digital presence was immaculately timed. Never before in India, was election campaigning done so much expansively through social media and Modi utilised the first mover advantage exceedingly well. Moreover, his capability to utilise the right opportunity at the right time paid dividends. In January 2014, Mani Shankar Aiyar, a Congressman, took a jibe at Modi for his tea seller background, and instead of reacting, Modi cleverly launched the #ChaiWala campaign, which was a huge success.

Shashi Tharoor was among the first Indian politician to join Twitter and the most followed one before Modi’s internet blitzkrieg helped him outnumber him. Modi’s internet supremacy wasn’t challenged much except by Arvind Kejriwal, who gained a lot of popularity but didn’t have the right team and resources to sustain a high voltage campaign.

From a humble RSS pracharak to India’s first digital Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has surely come a long way.