The Social Media 'War' Between NDC and NPP

What went wrong? Who is in charge? Have they changed their strategy?

Well, there are questions I have been battling with for the past weeks. Some few months ago I wrote an article questioning New Patriotic Party's (NPP) social media campaign strategy, I thought that they were not serious about going all out on social media. And I gave credit to National Democratic Congress (NDC) because they had a very good social media strategy and the numbers were working in their favor since social media is all about numbers and engagement. It appeared to me that NDC did not only have a good budget for their social media campaign but they also had a very organized social media team mainly for the elections campaign. I was always met with a unified message across the social media platforms from the 'foot soldier' to the high-ranked party members. The elephant seemed to have been chased into the bush at that time.

Now October is saying bye to us and November is to be welcomed in few days to come. But things seems not be going in the way of NDC on social media. I don't know whether the 'Elephant' decided to seek for the help of the heavy wind to blow the 'umbrella' into the skies, rendering it useless. But what I know for sure is that NPP is making huge gains on social media now. In the article I wrote some few months ago, I stated that the NDC had an upper hand in getting to appeal to the social media citizens than NPP, and my reason was that NDC had the pictures, and pictures on social media do well in reaching more people than just the text. They had the green book pictures and NPP had just texts. Of course, NPP was at a disadvantage as far as the algorithm of social media is concerned.

But then came the 'kalyppo craze' which I think it's the NDC did not think about the implications before seeking to mock the flagbearer of the NPP Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for drinking kalyppo, which is meant for children.

The above is the picture that was alledgedly posted on social media from the camp of NDC but the 'intention' behind the post could not survive the test of time. As NPP supporters on social media started posting pictures in show of support for the Flag bearer of the party.

This was Hashtagged #TheKalyppoChallenge as people were being challenged to post pictures of them with Kalyppo. This is when NPP started having an upper hand on social media, and instead of NDC allowing the 'kallypo craze' to die its natural death and then take over, they tried killing it by force with posts saying how 'unhealthy' kalyppo is. In my opinion, NPP is now leading the social media campaign.

Now, just as I suggested how NPP could also get the audience they deserve on social media, I am suggesting what NDC can do match NPP up like-for-like, comment-for-comment, share-for-share and post-for-post. But before that, let me ask this question; why is John Dramani Mahama's Usain Bolt's style not trending on social media?

In the above picture is the President of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama and a media personality, Afia Schwarzenegger. I was expecting the NDC to actually make sure it trends, but I guess the umbrella is still in the air without control and allowing the Elephant to walk majestically back into town. I believe NDC is still having the advantage of winning the social media campaign giving the fact that they have the money to do so, but it will also take some fine social media brains to make sure the money is put at the right place for the success of the campaign. I also believe NDC can still make the Usain Bolt style to trend.