An analysis of use of Instagram by political parties on Turkey's 2019 local elections by context of political marketing

Political marketing is a subdiscipline that presents the ways of understanding modern politics and the demands, needs and concerns of the new generation voters, and gaining support by establishing long-term relationships with them by using marketing instruments. Today, leaders are aware of the necessity of expressing themselves in the best way not only to win elections, but also not to lose their electoral support and reach electoral clusters where they cannot get votes. Social media platforms, which are the concrete output of the globalizing world and developing communication technologies, have been accepted as an easy, fast and cost-free media alternative that can be used in communication with voters as a result of the successful digital campaign carried out by Obama in the 2008 American Presidential Elections. In this study, it has been examined that Instagram usage levels of five political parties which are members of People's and Nation Alliance, before and after 31 March Local Election period. The thesis study includes the comparative analysis of the Instagram accounts of five political parties with content analysis method. As a result o study, it were found that there is new media awareness by five political parties, the most active account usage made by the People's Alliance, the social media activities have decreased in the post-election period compared to the pre-election and all political parties has been insufficient in using interaction aspects of social media.