by Since the time of independence and the governenance was given to the Indian Leaders , the country has seen a massive upheaval of changes in almost every aspect . Now and then you had those phenomenal leaders(Wouldnt call them as politicians) who steered the country to massive heights and made it standout on the world map almost equal to other Powerful Nations.
Yet , Given a Yin there’s always a Yang ,and these powerful remarkable leaders had to give way to corrupt politicians who plundered the country’s wealth and bundled the hard earned tax payer’s money into their pockets and made growth stagnant and almost to a standstill . They have been caught responsible for corruption of upto several lakh crores in almost every industry be it coal or spectrum or infrastructure.
These wouldn’t have happened , if the public ,esp the rising youth hadn’t shrunk their responsibility and given up on their right to vote when it mattered. The impact was only realized post the unearthing of innumerable scandals and crimes committed without even the slightest mercy ,in the national capital itself
The only way to fight back & Rise for the country is to use one of our most important fundamental Right : The Right to Vote . And such an important message can be reached to the youth only through one way in the current scenario : Social Media. Yes, this Social media ,powerful words that can cause ripples across any sector, topple governments in many parts of the world ,breaks major scandals , and even elects the leaders. A medium to voice your opinion no matter where you are in the world , on almost any topic you could ever think of . A media that is free to use , communicate and express,share one’s thoughts with another and understand what the society is talking on a whole on similar topics . Such a powerful tool should be utilized very effectively to mobilize the youth in large nos , increase their awareness on voting and instill them a a patriotism and a confidence that their act will change things and encourage them to actually Vote
Over the past few years, there has been a tremendous growth in social apps , esp in the Mobile platform
Some of the most important ones being Facebook , Twitter,Tunblr Android/IOS Apps ( Wechat , Vine, Foursquare, Instagram & so forth)
Each app has been built with a specific purpose and to address a certain question . Facebook to connect with people and share profiles,meet new people, share photos and messages and create a social network
Twitter is to understand what’s happening around the world, being specific to each country
Vine to post short videos of a key message or an interesting/comical incident through friends on to the forum
Wechat , an app that lets you do conference calls, send voice messages for Free (Internationally) replacing the earlier paid costly SMS ( which didnt have voice messaging either) and even find similar people around you using Wechat within your neighbourhood !!!
These apps has just not changed the way people communicate with each other, but actually caused a revolution in terms of its reach , impact and the power to influence the actual media.
I can think of innumerable ways to use these social media apps and bring about a sea of change in our country and actually make a difference, to make the people go and vote ! Some of them i have listed below
- Blog and Digg it : The current youth are totally hooked on to good articles , not on newspaper but rather on Online blogs , which is later spread across and “digged/liked/shared” by many people using online social media sites like Digg which spreads these articles across a larger base. So me being a ardent blogger and a considerable follower base, I’d write key articles on the importance of voting and its impact on the elections of 2014.I’d later promote the article using Digg, Tumblr and other Blog sharing sites to reshare the article across even a larger base . I’d send the link using Wechat , free to all my contacts and ask them to “broadcast the message” across all their contacts.
- Conduct Mock Polls across multiple channels like Twitter,FB and even mobile apps like Wechat where people’s response will be instantly captured. Create Groupchats in Wechat and instantly gauge your friends and contacts reaction and awareness on voting and elections and spread important messaages on rights to vote and its impact
- Create interesting twitter trending topics like #voteforIndia and add the hastag to my Blogposts, Personal Email Signatures , Print the #VoteforIndia tag in a Tshirt and wear it for all my events.Design posters with this #VoteforIndia hashtag and put up in key gathering places .I’ll also Tweet the importance of voting and encourage people to spread the awareness with this Hashtag in Twitter, Facebook, Vine , Instagram and all other places to popularize the trend and keep it as a trending topic
- With my developing skills, I’d develop Android/IOS Apps , that will help to create an online “Adhoc” mobile forum where people can crowdsource ideas, feedbacks , thoughts and even spread awareness topics using hashtags. This app would then be used along with other Social apps like Wechat,Twitter to spread key messages on important dates on elections, voter application dates , rallies and other political events to ensure people are up to date on the latest political happening and also know when is the election date and have themselves updated with the correct identification documents. The application will allow volunteers to share latest updates through social media including Facebook and Twitter as well as smartphone applications like WeChat and Instagra . The app will further empower volunteers to contribute easily, effectively and creatively
- TedTalks (TedX Youth) : The TedXYouth-India is one of the most significant forum and a place where the most brilliant minds come together to display , show or spread an important message. These minds when they can actually talk about international politics and talk about importance of voting, the youth seeing these shows online in Youtube,Ted.com,FB etc would share the video across multiple apps like Twitter, Wechat etc where almost any youth even remotely connected to the net would be able to receive this video and definitely be energized and inspired to go and vote for their preferred party leader
- Celebrities & Influencers : One of the best way people actually listen is when their favourite Idols , celebrities promote the message . These celebrities having 100 K + followers could be the most significant “Influencer” that anyone can think of. So if you ask these celebrities to post a tweet or a FB message on the #VoteforIndia campaign , it’d definitely pick up a huge momentum across the country and amongst all her/his followers who would further RT/Re-share the post
- Facebook Pages : Create a Page on this VoteforIndia Topic and invite all your friends and ask them to invite their friends as well. Post frequent postings on the #VoteforIndia with polls, images and questions to involve the people and make them active in the community . This social media awarness actually helps a long way in mobilizing the youth towards the elections
- Wechat Group Voice Messages & Contests: Create Wechat group message (which can now hold upto 100 contacts) and ask each of them to voice their opinion on Voting and Elections and even host a contest for the same. The best “Voiced” opinion through Wechat would win a huge prize ! This contest would later be open for all public who has Wechat installed on their smartphones
