Move Forward triumphs in the hashtag election: report
The Move Forward Party's expertise in using social media to galvanise support was underscored by a report released by a data analytic company on Tuesday that said its social-media engagement rate was 70% higher than any other political party on election day and the day after.
Move Forward received 83.4 million social-media engagements over the two-day period, according to the Thai-language report by Wisesight (Thailand).
Engagements refer to responses to social-media posts, with the number of comments, shares and likes (and other reactions) determining the rate of engagement.
The company analysed the engagement rates of political parties on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pantip, and website blogs. Facebook and Twitter were the two dominant online platforms for discussing the election, the company said.
Move Forward’s 83.4 million engagements were generated from about 800,000 posts made by about 70,000 people during the two days, Wisesight (Thailand) said.
Its leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, was the subject of 24.7 million engagements on the platforms, followed by Pheu Thai prime ministerial candidate Paetongtarn Shinawatra, with 3.7 million engagements, and Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul with 1.9 million, it said.
“Move Forward” was posted over 242,000 times in Thai during the two days, and these posts had more than 60 million engagements, the report said.
Discussions about the election surged from when the polls closed at 5pm on Sunday until midnight, the report said. A second surge began at noon on Monday when Pita announced that his party would join forces with five other political parties to create a governing coalition, the report said.
The Election Commission was also in the spotlight. It was mentioned more than 100,000 times online during the two days, the report said, adding that this might have been the result of the commission's slow release of unofficial results.
The report said the three election-related Thai-language hashtags that trended the highest were, in English, #election2023, #MoveForward, and #ElectionCommission, in that order.
Local media have reported that Move Forward bought no Facebook ads during the election campaign.
The report by Wisesight (Thailand) indicates it does not need to.
