The Political Poster-An Advertising Tool on Facebook

摘要

Political advertising represents a vast resource to which political actors resort during electoral periods. The Facebook social network has also been used in Romania as a political communication tool. Its first usage emerged during the campaign for the 2008 parliamentary elections and the 2009 presidential elections. It was used to promote the image of the political actor and to mobilize supporters to vote.The Facebook socializing network has registered the most significant increase in the number of users in Romania over the past two years, serving as a communicative tool for Bacau county candidates running for the Parliament in the 2012 elections. In using the Facebook network as a genuine advertising tool, they provided their virtual friends with self-promotional materials, including photographs from the major campaign events, the agenda of media appearances, together with wishes and songs with dedication themes. Such political materials personally posted in the network contributed to their friends' expressing likes, shares and comments and increased their pages' interactivity with 25%. Facebook-posted political posters also reached the goal of boosting the political actor's rate of recognition by the future elector (name, face, supporting party logo and, to a lesser extent, his/her political values).