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Social media has become an indispensable part of modern politics. Its rise in the political arena has coincided with the decline in trust toward mainstream media. Today, more than half of the population gets their political news and information through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Social media offers a great marketing opportunity to politicians as they allow them to bypass traditional media and communicate directly with voters, engage citizens during campaign and noncampaign periods, and create a brand image. As social media's influence in politics grows, so has the research devoted to political marketing on social media. It is against this backdrop that this chapter is written, which provides readers with an overview of the academic domain and the current state of literature. The chapter highlights the various research areas that have been explored in the literature and the implications of social media for political marketing strategy, along with the domain's current limitations and possible avenues of further research.

Social media platforms are highly visible platforms, so politicians try to maximize their benefits from their use, especially during election campaigns. On the other side, people express their views and sentiments toward politicians and political issues on social media, thus enabling them to observe their online political behavior. Therefore, this study aims to investigate user reactions on social media during the 2016 US presidential campaign to decide which candidate invoked stronger emotions on social media.

For testing the proposed hypotheses regarding emotional reactions to social media content during the 2016 presidential campaign, regression analysis was used to analyze a data set that consists of Trump’s 996 posts and Clinton’s 1,253 posts on Facebook. The proposed regression models are based on viral (likes, shares, comments) and emotional Facebook reactions (Angry, Haha, Sad, Surprise, Wow) as well as Russell’s valence, arousal, dominance (VAD) circumplex model for valence, arousal and dominance.

The results of regression analysis indicate how Facebook users felt about both presidential candidates. For Clinton’s page, both positive and negative content are equally liked, while Trump’s followers prefer funny and positive emotions. For both candidates, positive and negative content influences the number of comments. Trump’s followers mostly share positive content and the content that makes them angry, while Clinton’s followers share any content that does not make them angry. Based on VAD analysis, less dominant content, with high arousal and more positive emotions, is more liked on Trump’s page, where valence is a significant predictor for commenting and sharing. More positive content is more liked on Clinton’s page, where both positive and negative emotions with low arousal are correlated to commenting and sharing of posts.

Building on an empirical data set from Facebook, this study shows how differently the presidential candidates communicated on social media during the 2016 election campaign. According to the findings, Trump used a hard campaign strategy, while Clinton used a soft strategy.

This study aims to examine the perceptions of political figures and campaign strategists in Kuwait regarding the adoption of virtual political campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic. By using an enhanced version of the technology acceptance model (TAM), it seeks to understand and quantify their attitudes toward these digital campaign methods. This study can be considered as a bold contribution to the discussion on digital transformation of virtual channels for the promotion of bold innovation and social impact in Kuwait.

Data was gathered from 82 participants, comprising 47 politicians and 35 campaign managers in Kuwait. A comprehensive method involving both questionnaires and face-to-face interactions was implemented to ensure a thorough collection of relevant data, aiming to support the research’s objectives effectively.

The results underscore the significant influence of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and the newly integrated factor of perceived convenience on the attitudes toward virtual political campaigns. These factors collectively shape the willingness and approach of political entities in embracing digital campaigning avenues. The findings also indicate that digital transformation in the design and implementation of virtual campaigns can be grounded on positive attitudes and perceptions.

The research fills a critical gap in existing literature by examining large-scale attitudes toward virtual political campaigns in Kuwait’s unique context. It offers novel understandings of how political figures and campaign managers perceive and adapt to technological advancements in campaign strategies, mainly during unprecedented crisis times like the COVID-19 pandemic. This study contributes to academic discourse and has practical implications for the evolution of political campaigning strategies in a digital age. A direct implication of our study is also the need to promote further future research on the capacity of digitally transformed channels for political campaigns to be venues of bold innovation. It also highlights the need to provide citizens with training and awareness for this new era of prompt responses to their requirements toward sustainable development and innovation.

This chapter demonstrates a parallel between the presidential campaigns of Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil, 2018) and Donald Trump (United States, 2016) regarding their use of social media. Specifically, tweets from the former candidates on the social network sites were analyzed during a one-month timeframe before their respective presidential elections. Tweets were selected for analysis based on the fact that Twitter was the main platform used by both former presidential candidates. The analysis of the data reveals considerable similarities between the communication strategies of the two candidates. This research enlists McCombs and Shaw (1972) agenda setting theory based on their study of media during North American presidential campaigns in 1968 and Lippmann’s (2008) concept of public opinion. The methodology employed is based on Bardin (2011).

This chapter discusses the growing use of social media during election campaigns in Ghana. It examines how social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter became preferred tools for voter engagement, mobilisation and campaign for political parties and their presidential and parliamentary candidates in the 2020 elections in Ghana. It establishes that social media are gradually surpassing traditional/legacy media as the preferred media choice for political mobilisation, civic engagement and political communication in Ghana. The chapter reviews the European Union Election Observation Mission (EOM) report through social media affordance lens. This chapter attempts to answer two critical questions: To what extent did political parties and presidential candidates in Ghana use social media in electioneering campaigns during the 2020 elections and, which social media platforms were highly preferred by political parties and presidential candidates in engaging the electorate? The EOM's data indicators show the prominence of Facebook and Twitter as significant in political party campaigns during the period under study. Preliminary analysis also points out that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and their presidential candidate, Nana Akufo Addo including the opposition National Democratic Congress and their leader, John Dramani Mahama, spent thousands of dollars on Facebook advertisements for extensive voter mobilisation.

This study aims to examine the attitudes of the Kuwaiti public towards governmental campaigns on social media (GCSM) regarding the country’s Vision 2035. Specifically, it investigates the effect of GCSM on three attitudinal dimensions (i.e. cognitive, emotional and behavioural).

This study is designed using random sampling. Responses from 630 social media users were obtained using a survey questionnaire (Appendix). The results of data analysis indicate that GCSM had a positive impact on the attitudes of participants towards Vision 2035.

Based on the findings, recommendations are outlined to increase the efficiency of GCSM. This study is unique because no other study has examined the attitudes of Kuwaiti citizens towards GCSM or investigated the effects of these campaigns on citizens’ attitudes in terms of cognitive, emotional and behavioural components. The results can assist decision makers in identifying the effectiveness of such campaigns and taking measures accordingly.

This research provides a new evaluation of the role of virtual campaigns in Kuwait. It highlights the crucial and increasing role of virtual campaigns on citizens’ attitudes Towards Kuwait’s Vision 2035, and it found that virtual campaigns should be used as an addendum to conventional political campaigns in Kuwait.

Social media have become the main channel of direct communication between members of parliament and constituents. The study analyzes the content in all Israeli MPs' Facebook channels throughout an entire term of parliament and asks if the results are consistent with the equalization or the normalization hypotheses.

The study uses automatic analysis to produce a birds-eye-view of the content uploaded to the Facebook pages of all Israeli MPs during a full term of parliament. All 106 MP pages were automatically scraped. Some complementary information was added to each post in the dataset, such as post length (number of words) and whether the page belongs to a member of the opposition or coalition. The total of 441,974 posts was analyzed to compare engagement and publication rates between pages, coalition vs opposition MPs, MPs vs users etc.

The findings demonstrate that the MP-Facebook sphere is non-egalitarian, in that it follows skewed distributions by MPs in terms of post publication and engagement rates; non-inclusive, in that pages of coalition members receive significantly much more engagement vis-a-vis pages of members of the oppositions; and “top-down”, in that MP-authored posts receive dramatically more engagement then user-authored posts, suggesting MPs have a near-monopoly on setting the agendas manifest in their pages, while users have extremely limited agenda-setting capabilities in these pages.

Previous studies have looked at the character of the interactions between MPs and constituents on the Internet and particularly on online social media. Yet, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study provides a birds-eye-view of the content in all MPs' Facebook channels throughout a full term of parliament. Such an analysis provides a more comprehensive understanding of the character and dynamics of conversations that take place in such arenas.

This study aims to elaborate on the antecedents of muzakki (zakat payers) paying zakat (Islamic philanthropy) through institutions with social media arrangements, while the drivers of social media engagement are used in the conceptual model with trust and intention.

Overall, the final sample of 230 respondents was obtained through the database of official zakat management institutions. Regarding analytical tools, this study combines the partial least square structural equation modelling and necessary condition analysis approaches to explore research findings.

The findings show that firm-generated information and trust play an important role directly and indirectly. At the same time, other constructions, such as social factors and user-based factors, provide variations in necessary conditions to increase the muzakki’s intention to channel their zakat through institutions.

Zakat institutions must focus on improving social media-based services by integrating important information, such as credibility and transparency, with muzakki’s preferences. Additionally, zakat information on social media must be attractively packaged and contain facilities that muzakki can use in communicating, such as; their opinions, suggestions and input. The findings, in general, underscore the attachment between muzakki and zakat institutions through social media, which can significantly impact the positive environment of zakat institutions.

To the author’s knowledge, this study is pioneering in conceptualizing and testing a theoretical model linking drivers of social media engagement, trust and intention to pay zakat through the institution, particularly in the levels of necessity.

The objectives of this study are threefold: to delineate the phenomenon of “You Share, We Donate” (YSWD) campaigns and what distinguishes them from sales-based cause-related marketing; to contrast the effectiveness of YSWD and sales-based cause-related marketing campaigns and provide an explanation for the differences in the effectiveness; to explore boundary conditions of the proposed differences.

Three experiments were conducted to empirically test the differential effect of campaign formats (i.e. YSWD vs sales-based cause-related marketing), the underlying mechanism and structural as well as contextual features moderating the differential effect.

The findings suggest that YSWD messages elicit consumers’ message-sharing intentions more than traditional cause-related marketing messages. The effect is explained by consumers’ sense of empowerment and can be enhanced through donation cap non-specification. The findings further indicate that YSWD campaigns are especially fruitful in low power distance cultures.

This study contributes toward corporate donation campaign literature by focusing on the usage of social media.

From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns.

This paper extends cause-related marketing literature by not only introducing the phenomenon of YSWD campaigns to the literature but also exploring strategies to enhance the effectiveness of such campaigns and shedding light on an outcome beyond the sales impact of cause-related marketing campaigns, i.e. an increase of visibility in social media. From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns.

This study examines the effect of social media marketing on voting intention applying a combination of fuzzy logic methodology and a multidimensional panel data model.

The study adopts a multidimensional panel data method that includes several fixed effects. The dependent variable is a multifaceted construct that measures the participants’ intention to vote. The independent variables are electronic word of mouth (eWOM), customisation (CUS), entertainment (ENT), interaction (INT), trendiness (TRD), candidate’s perceived image (CPI), religious beliefs (RB), gender and age. The grouping variables that signify fixed effects are employment status, level of education, mostly used social media and religion. First, the significance of said fixed effects was tested through an ANOVA process. Then, the main model was estimated, including the significant grouping variables as fixed effects.

Employment status and level of education were significant fixed effects. Also, eWOM, ENT, INT, CPI, RB and gender significantly affected participants’ voting intention.

Being based on a questionnaire that asked participants about how they perceive different aspects of social media, the present study is limited to their perceptions. Therefore, further studies covering the voters’ behaviour in action could be efficient complements to the present study.

The findings could guide the political parties into prioritizing the aspects of social media in forming an effective campaign resulting in being elected.

The findings have the potential to help the public in making better informed decisions when voting. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate applications for social media which are beyond leisure time fillers.

Fuzzy logic and multidimensional panel data estimates are this study’s novelty and originality. Structural equation modelling and crisp linguistic values have been used in previous studies on social media’s effect on voting intent. The former refines the data gathered from a questionnaire, and the latter considers the possibility of including different grouping factors to achieve a more efficient and less biased estimation.