Social media in the presidential election campaign: Slovakia 2019
Social media in the presidential election campaign: Slovakia 2019

Summary/Abstract: Since its origin, social media have been perceived as a place of self-expression and freedom of opinion. Social media, especially Facebook, are considered a powerful tool for various public administration activities that do not relate only to informing citizens, but also having them participate in decision-making and municipality governance. Nowadays, social media are also used in the marketing of a person or political party. This paper deals with the position and tasks of social media in the 2019 presidential election campaign in Slovakia. The article is based on an analysis of the Facebook pages and profiles of all 15 candidates for the post of President of the Slovak Republic. The research was carried out in the months of September 2018 – March 2019 using a special tool for analyzing Facebook pages called Facepager. Weanalysed number and type of posts and interactions (i.e. number of likes and shares) for the candidates by calculating so called interaction rate. Using basic statistical methods, we have confirmed the relevance and importance of using social media in thepresidential election campaign. The paper also suggests some steps for better election campaigns – municipal, regional, national or even European Union election campaigns, showing the big potential of social media in political marketing.

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