Social media as a promotional tool: a comparison between political parties and companies

Abstract: In recent years, with the appearance of social media, traditional print and
broadcast media as main promotional tools have faced major challenges, as
many newspapers and television channels have suffered audience reduction.
Overwhelmingly, the majority of marketers, both business and political, have
started to use some form of social media for promotional purposes. The
overall purpose of this research is to characterise the similarities and
differences of the use of social media as promotional tool by political
parties and companies.
This research is exploratory in nature and the data collected is
qualitative.
In order to conduct this research, we have interviewed two political parties
(Miljöpartiet de gröna and Centerpartiet) and two companies
(Stockholm-Arlanda Airport and SJ AB). Taking into account the new
communication paradigm from Mangold and Faulds as a base, we asked questions
about how they use each element of the promotional mix in social media.
The findings showed that the use of social media for promotional purposes
was rather similar between the companies and political parties. Analysed
data showed that political parties, in their social media activities, were
focused on public relations and personal selling in a form of online
interactions with voters, while the companies only focused on public
relations.
This research demonstrates that both political parties and companies still
have not fully integrated social media for promotional purposes and that
they still rely on traditional media for promotion.