Political parties and their supporters are using social media platforms to convey messages, attempting to woo voters at the polls next month, resulting in a fierce content war among rival camps.
Such content often features catchy mottos to highlight party policies and criticism of rival party policies.
According to creative agency Media Intelligence, Facebook and TikTok are the most popular platforms used by parties to promote their election campaigns.
Pawat Ruangdejworachai, president of Media Intelligence, said social media has an 85% penetration rate among the Thai population.
According to the "Digital Thailand 2023" report, there were 52.3 million social media users in Thailand in January 2023.
Facebook had 48.1 million users, YouTube 43.9 million, TikTok 40.3 million, Instagram 17.4 million and Twitter 14.6 million.
The report is part of the "Digital 2023 Global Overview" by Datareportal.com in partnership with creative agency We Are Social and social listening platform Meltwater.
Mr Pawat said for the general election, the estimate for first-time voters is 3.99 million, lower than the 7.32 million in the election four years ago when new voters were seen as a major factor.
Thai constituency candidates register themselves on April 3 for the election. (Photo: Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)
He said social media is no longer used to only reach youngsters, with the platform now a method to reach various generations for this campaign.
Colourful content helps deepen engagement between parties and social media users, said Mr Pawat.
Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube are the top channels the political parties are banking on to promote their policies.
He said the use of TikTok by political parties to trumpet their campaigns can be attributed to the platform gaining a large user base.
In the next election, the Discord platform might gain a footing among political parties to promote their campaigns if it can boost its user base, said Mr Pawat.
He said there are two main themes on social media, with the first short video clips about parties' campaigns that target different regional dialects.
Second, the candidates highlight portions of their speeches broadcast via mainstream media during policy debates, picking catchy content for distribution.
The theme of the content is usually to promote a party candidate or indirectly discredit other parties, said Mr Pawat.
Supporters can also choose their preferred soundbites of politicians' speeches to share on their social media pages, hoping to influence potential voters.
He said for this election information operation tactics have been used less to "manipulate" the public because people are more aware of this strategy.
Mr Pawat recommended voters study party policies in depth on various media channels, not only social media and short video clips.
He said advertising spending for the 2023 election should near 100 million baht, mainly for paid media and billboards.
Kla Tangsuwan, chief executive of Wisesight (Thailand) Co, a social media analytics firm, said there is fiercer competition among online content strategies for this election.
According to Wisesight, during March 21 to April 19, political content messages increased by 1.2 million from Feb 19 to 20 March on seven channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, online news websites, online web boards and others.
Messages mentioning political parties and their candidates rose by more than 2 million, with the most mentioned related to the Move Forward Party, the United Thai Nation Party, overall candidate names, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and the Pheu Thai Party, said the firm.
