Analysis of the social media use of İstanbul candidates in the 2019 local elections: A comparison of Ekrem İmamoğlu and Binali Yildirim's Twitter postings

Technological developments that have come up to date and continue affect every aspect of our lives and put us in a change. The effects of this change and the transformation process are discussed in marketing in the first part of the study. With the digitalization of marketing, transportation and communication to consumers are also evolving. This evolution leads to the use of digital platforms and social media to come to the fore. Today, both advertisements can be made more quickly, and consumers' feedback can be received faster, and communication can be established. With the effect of technological developments, there are also differences in political communication studies. In the second part of the study, how political marketing and political communication works and how it is affected by technology are discussed. The development of technology prepares a process in which political leaders also benefit from this technology. Technology, which increased accessibility with mass media, now allows the use of social media platforms. In this way, political leaders can communicate more effectively by using mutual interaction by conducting election studies from social media. In particular, a platform such as Twitter, where they can express their thoughts directly, is of great importance in presenting the political activities carried out today and for leaders to express themselves. In the third part of the study, in the 2019 local elections, which is the main subject of the research, how the Istanbul candidates use social media in the election process and its effect on the election are examined. Among the Istanbul candidates, only the Twitter accounts of Binali Yıldırım and Ekrem İmamoğlu are taken into account. Of the candidates' social media channels, only the Twitter platform is examined. The election work of the candidates on Twitter, both for the 31 March local elections in 2019 and for the 23 June local elections with the re-election, is discussed. Candidates present their promises to the voters through their Twitter accounts for both election periods, announce their programs, and appeal to more audiences by using hashtags that set the agenda. In addition, it is observed how effective they are on the voters and how many people they reach by re-sharing (retweet) by the likes, comments, and accounts that come to their posts. Keywords: Marketing, Local Elections, Political Communication, Political Marketing, Social Media, Twitter