Twitter most preferred platform for interactions around budget announcement: Report

At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been urging the government agencies to use social media and follow the trends on these networking sites  in order to stay in touch with the masses, a global analytical company CRISIL conducted an independent study around activities on social media platforms during the recently announced union budget.

According to the analytics firm, Twitter was the clear winner among social platforms. The study covered diverse social platforms comprising Twitter, Facebook, blogs and the web. “Twitter was the most preferred by a wide margin, with nearly 87% of the people using it to talk about the budget followed by Facebook with 7% and news channels with 3.5%. Discussion boards, blogs, videos, Google Plus and Tumblr constituted the rest,” the company said.

In all, CRISIL analysed 36,000 unique social media profiles and 1,75,000 relevant comments or ‘mentions’ (out of a total 3.28 lakh made) on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and the web for 24 hours – 12 hours before the Union Budget and 12 hours after.

CRISIL’s portraiture analytics revealed that individuals were the single-largest category active on social media, representing 75% of the profile population and 63% of mentions. Influencers (people with a large following) emerged as a significant voice, accounting for close to 14% of the total mentions on various platforms. The media (channels, journalists & media houses) accounted for 12% of the total mentions.

Roopa Kudva, Managing Director & CEO, CRISIL Ltd, said: “Our sample of 36,000 profiles showed up 814 politicians and activists, reflecting a good engagement by this segment. Economy experts, though relatively few in number, had amongst the most to say – averaging 10 mentions per profile. 14% of the mentions were from outside India.”

Investors and businesses, for whom the budget mattered the most, made up less than 1% of the total mentions in CRISIL’s analysis.

“Tax was the prime topic in Karnataka and Maharashtra, while it wasn’t even in the top five mentions of people from the National Capital Region. In NCR, the centre of attention was FDI and defence, reflecting the influence of proximity to the corridors of power.” Kudva said.

The newly elected government’s interest in social media is quite evident from some of the the recent developments. As per reports, to keep the prime minister informed about the mood of the nation, the information and broadcasting ministry has begun sending his office an analysis of the latest trends on social media.

The ‘social media wing’ of I&B ministry has been tasked with monitoring the latest trends as reflected on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. It has been learned that while initially reports might be sent on a daily basis, the frequency of these may be increased in the coming days.