This
research was fascinating and more challenging than I thought. The first of two barriers
I came across - and naively did not think about - was the fact I did don’t
speak or read any other language other than English (fortunately, Google and
Bing have amazing translation technology tools).
The
second challenge - which I did not think about before my research - is cultural
norms and customs.
Physical
The location of the election took
place in Israel, yet many people across the world were able to “chime-in” with
their thoughts about Israel’s prime minster, through social media.
Psychological
Just a before Election Day in Israel, Netanyahu posted a video asking for questions and said, “In a few minutes will be here to answer your questions.” What I noticed as I used Facebook’s
translating tool was the lack of questions. Most were comments that solely praised
Netanyahu. They are indexed under two categories:
1. Undecided/ swing voters reading the comments of praise would/could
play a huge roll in how voters perceived him.
2.
Questions that seemed to start with praise - most the time.
When comparing Obama and Netanyahu
posts, Obama’s did not have the same love Netanyahu’s did. The most powerful
man in the world’s (Obama) Facebook site seems to be a place for trolls. While
there were some positive, there was many more negative - and quite a few
satirical - questions and/or comments to the United State President. Netanyahu’s
Facebook is much more positive than you would expect. Is this because trolls
only live in the United States? When everyone seems to love someone it’s hard
to step out in disagreement
Social
As
of March 31, the top two parties in Israel Facebook pages posted 154,764 likes for the Zionist Union and 18,894 likes for the Likud Party - which Netanyahu is a part. How can a candidate win if their
party has so few likes on Facebook - compared to the other? I quickly looked up
the Republican and Democrat parties and found - at first glance - Republicans
have more likes than Democrats. (And the Democrats are considered the more tech
savvy party?)
What stands out in each search is that
Netanyahu and Obama both have more likes than any other politician, and more
than their own political party. This is possibly the key in how Netanyahu won
the election. Instead of his supporters grasping onto ideals, they gravitated toward
the person. I think the same can be said about USA in its past few elections. Aligning
your group with a person makes you and your party much more social media
friendly compared to a large bureaucracy. What goes viral on my Newsfeed tends
to have the theme of an individual not a large group.
Temporal
What makes social media powerful is
how fast a message can be sent. What made Netanyahu’s campaign/career so potent
is his use of social media. His posts not only came at the right time and with
the right topic, but he dominated a Newsfeed. I tested this as part of my research:
I liked/stocked a few pages from Israeli politics and Netanyahu has dominated
my Newsfeed ever since. When I compare the times he posted in relation to
important events and talking points, he knows the prime time to post.
Cultural
After Netanyahu gave his speech to
the United State Congress, the YouTube comment sections (on the video) started
to light up. Not surprising that most of the comments were negative about
Netanyahu and most of the negative comments came from people from countries
that have never been friends with Israel. The old proverb, “An enemy of my
enemy is my friend,” rings true in the - come from behind – victory. If a group
of people who you hate and who hate you in return, dislike a political leader,
of course I would vote for him/her. I have to wonder if the negative comments
made on social media only helped Netanyahu win.
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