Social Media Marketing - Creating the Image of the Politician in the Virtual Space on the Case of the Leaders of the Polish Political Stage

Abstract

The article presents the results of empirical studies concerning the use by the leaders of Polish political parties of the possibilities offered by social media marketing. The investigation of the source material has shown that in the communication with the Internet users, all the parties and their leaders use to a greater or lesser extent: websites, Internet television channels, official profiles in social media, blogs and micro-blogs. The detailed analysis concerned the formats of social media marketing selected most frequently by the politicians – activities on social networking sites (YouTube, Facebook and NK), blogs and the micro-blog Twitter. The empirical study covered the period from the beginning of the existence of the politician’s account in the given service to September 15, 2013. As a result of the study, the hypothesis has been proved that the active use of the Internet by the Polish political players, as a tool of communicating with the public opinion, is systematically increasing. However, social media are treated by the politicians in a business way, which prevents authentic dialogue with the potential electorate.