Modi miles ahead of competition on Twitter

MUMBAI: The BJP clean sweep at the national elections found an echo on Twitter. On counting day Narendra Modi began with 39.87 lakh followers and ended with 40.92 lakh, breaking a record of sorts in the number of followers on Twitter any individual has pulled in on a given day. The tally now stands well over 41.1 lakh.
This may have much to do with the BJP’s early debut on Twitter and the effective use of social media that went towards building the sort of marketing campaign rarely seen in Indian politics.
Modi broke more than one record on Twitter on Friday. His tweet soon after his victory has been retweeted over 67,500 times, making it the most retweeted tweet in Twitter India’s history.
The tweet broke several milestones.
Five of his tweets were amongst the top ten most retweeted tweets from India. Four of which have made it to the top five.
Modi replied directly on Twitter to congratulatory tweets from world leaders and influential Indians, from UK Prime Minister David Cameron to superstar Rajnikant, as well as to tweets from rival parties such as Shashi Tharoor. According to Twitter India, this marked a change from his earlier strategy, where he was rarely seen personally responding to tweets. Modi has also sent direct messages over Twitter to those who wished him over his success.
The top five election-related terms, as of May 16, were Narendra Modi (7.2 lakh), AAP (1.2 lakh), BJP (3.2 lakh), Rahul Gandhi (47,000) and Varanasi (21,000).
"Both BJP and Modi have prioritized and innovated on Twitter. Modi, a man set to be India’s next Prime Minister, truly understands Twitter as a platform. At a time when news breaks on Twitter first, Modi has understood that the best content on the platform is that of a personal nature, such as the selfies he has put out on Twitter. Before he sought his mother’s blessings, he put out a tweet announcing his victory,” says Rishi Jaitly of Twitter India.
Jaitly also pointed to BJP’s use of Twitter’s SMS service, whereby a person can make a missed call on a number and get tweets from that user in the form of an SMS, which meant that tweets could be read without the internet.