Political Marketing and the Formation of Trends in Public Opinion on Social Networking Sites

An Analytical Study of the Two F.B. Pages: the Prime Minister and the Parliament President

Abstract

The social networking sites have become one of the most important promotional instruments for their characteristic of facilitation of communication and the creation of public platform for discussion and formation of new points of view. These sites were used in the political marketing process where politicians use Facebook pages to promote their ideologies and spread their programs for the purpose of an influencing public opinion.
This research deals with the way by which political products are the Iraqi parliament. We adopt the methodology for analyzing the contents of these pages during three months starting from September,12 2016 to March 1, 2017 characterized by a lot of changes and events, in particular the beginning of the war operations for the liberation of the city of Al-Mosul. All these events are found in the pages of the political leaders on which emerged a number of issues raised by public opinion on Facebook with different rends. At the end of the study, a series of results emerged; the most important of these is that the marketing objectives are directed to highlight the activities and actions of politicians. The results also demonstrates that there is an inequality between the subjects and the various content published by politicians, that publics do not interact with them except for certain specific problems concerning their demands and needs. One of the main problems that attract the focus of public opinion on these pages is the issues of the liberation of the city of Al-Mosul and the precariousness of public services and return of displaced in their areas.