Social Media in Politics: The Case of Turkish

President Abdullah Gül Aslı Yağmurlu

Institute of Public Administration for Turkey and Middle East, Turkey

Today, if you don’t have a presence in social media, it means you don’t exist. This forced all actors of the social life to join social media. Political arena is not an exception. In political and governmental arena, social media usage has the potential to engage with citizens, peers and the global community. Social media activities are counted as a PR effort of the political actors. President Gül is a good example of world leaders who make extensive use of social media.

The objective of this study is to analyze the President Gül of Turkey via social media according to dialogic theory.

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President Abdullah GülThe governments of almost two-thirds of the 193 UN member countries have a presence on Twitter. However, only around 30 world leaders tweet themselves on a regular basis (twiplomacy, 2013). President Gül is one of them.

In Twitter, President Gül (@cbabdullahgul) is the third most followed leader with 3.8 million followers.

In Facebook, President Gül with 1.1 million fans forms a massive group. 3

Research questions of the study:

Q1. Are the social media channels of the Presidency dialogic?

Q2. What is disseminated through the channels?Presidency of Turkey website (www.tccb.gov.tr) is the unit of of analysis. The social media links attached to the main page are researched for 1 year period between May 9, 2012-May 9, 2013. The dialogic principles are based on Kent and Taylor’s study (1998) where each social media channel is inquired according to dialogic assessments. The coding is done by the writer in two scale measurement (existing or not). To operationalize principles of dialogue, questions are formulated. The content of the social media applications are systematically listed and categorized.

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What is social media?Social media is the version of the web that is open to ordinary users where they can add their content (Brown, 2009: 1).

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Types of social media blogs, microblogs (Twitter) online ranking

(Tripadviser) social bookmarking

(Digg) podcasts, social

knowledge (Wikipedia) video sharing

(YouTube)

photo sharing (Instagram)

geolocation (Foursquare)

social networking (Facebook)

games (World of Warcraft)

forums

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Social networking sites now reach 82% of the world’s

Internet population Top 5 social media sites

(eBizMBA Rank, 2013) :1. Facebook (750 million

unique montly visitors) 2. Twitter (250 million

umv)3. LinkedIn (110 million

umv)4. Pinterest (85 million

umv)5. Myspace (70 million umv)

Top 10 countries that use social media (Pew Research, 2013):1. Britain2. USA3. Russia4. Czech Republic5. Spain6. Poland7. Brazil8. France9. Italy10.Turkey

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Social media in TurkeyTotal population: 76.8 million Internet users: 36.5 millionPercentage of online population: 47% (Internet World Stats, 2012)

Top social media sites in Turkey (Alexa, 2013)

1. Facebook2. Youtube3. Twitter

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Facebook users are 32 million (socialbakers, 2013).

39% is using Facebook. Turkey has the 7th biggest population of the Facebook society.

10 million Twitter users (monitera.com, 2013).

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Dialogic Theory in PRPublic relations can be defined as “building and maintaining mutually benefical relationships essential to modern society” (Cutlip et.al, 1994: 6).

In order to build a balanced relationship between organizations and publics, the form of the communication should be dialogic. The rise of social media made a dramatic difference in the practice of two-way symmetrical public relations through dialogue.

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Kent and Taylor claim that “the inclusion of the concept of dialogue in public relations vocabulary is an important step toward understanding how organizations can build relationships that serve both organizational and public interests” (Kent and Taylor, 2002: 1).

Kent and Taylor (1998) offers five principles to integrate dialogic public relations into websites.

In this study, the principles they offer have applied to President Gül’s social media usage at the Presidency website.

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Dialogic Principles Definition Research Parameters

1. Ease of interface Websites should include only essential links

Clear links and ‘about us’ topic.

2. Dialogic loop Feedback opportunities.

Likes, share/retweet and commend/reply facilities

3. Usefulness of information

Web site should be user friendly and informative.

Links given and uses of multimedia.

4. Conservation of visitors

Maintaining the visitors’ visit time maximization.

The number of followers and Klaut rate.

5. Generation of return visits

The features that guarantee visitors to return to the site again.

Frequency of the messages.

ResultsPresidency Website Characteristics

Presidency of Turkey website (www.tccb.gov.tr) utilized the social media facilities to connect with national and international publics.

Under the Presidency, Corporate Communication Directorate is responsible for public relations efforts including the management of the website and social media links.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Vidivodo plus personal iphone and Android applications links with icons are presented.

The site has an English version besides Turkish.

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FacebookThere are two Facebook pages, English and Turkish officially activated from the Presidency website.

Both pages are active since August 3, 2011. Facebook application of President Gül is organized as a fan page.

There are more than 1.1 million fans . The majority of the fans are from Turkey with 85 % of the total. 3% from Germany, 1,5% from Egypt, 0,8% from Azerbaijan, 0,6 % from France and the rest from different countries.

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Dialogic capacity of Facebook

Ease of interface Facebook link is easily searchable Facebook page gives detailed information about the President

✔

Dialogic loop 74 posts, 600 thousand likes, 63 thousand shares, 44 thousand comments.Each post gains 8 thousand likes, 850 shares and 600 comments.

✔

Usefulness of the information

Posts have attached links and multimedia support

✔

Conservation of visitors:

1.1 million fans ✔

Generation of return visits

0,2 posts per day ✗17

TwitterThe Presidency’s leading social media practice is Twitter. He has 3.8 million followers.

Like Facebook pages, Presidency maintains two Twitter pages that can be reached via the Turkish and English versions of the Presidency website.

The Turkish account @cbabdullahgul was launched on May 14, 2010

The English account @trpresidency was launched on March 26, 2011.

The Klout Score (measure of the influence based on ability to drive action on social networks) of President Gül is 84 over 100.

He tweets by himself

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Dialogic capacity of Twitter

Ease of interface Twitter link is easy to find and working properly. There is a bio of the President

✔

Dialogic loop 313 tweets with comments and retweets

✔

Usefulness of the information

President’s every tweet has attachments.

✔

Conservation of visitors:

The number of followers are around 3.8 million and Klout score is 85

✔

Generation of return visits

Tweets 0.8 times per day ✔

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TwitterThe Presidency’s leading social media practice is Twitter. He has 3.7 million followers in Twitter.

Like Facebook pages, Presidency maintains two Twitter pages that can be reached via the Turkish and English versions of the Presidency website.

The Turkish account @cbabdullahgul was launched on May 14, 2010

The English account @trpresidency was launched on March 26, 2011.

The Klout Score (measure of the influence based on ability to drive action on social networks) of President Gül is 84 over 100.

He tweets by himself

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Dialogic capacity of Twitter

ease of interface, the links of Twitter is checked at the Presidency website. The link is easy to find and working properly. Besides, there is a biography of the President at his Twitter account confirming the existence of the ‘about us’.

The dialogic loop principle is searched with retweets and comments. The total number of tweets are 313 for which there are comments and retweets with no exception indicating the existence of dialogic loop. There are no retweets made by President Gül except to the two official Presidency accounts and no answers are given to the comments.

usefulness of information. As the tweeting space is limited to 140 characters, attached links are quite important to learn more about the issue at stake. Besides, including photographs makes the event more lively. President’s every tweet has attachments.

Another principle is the conservation of visitors. The constant rise of the followers confirms the fact that visitors conserved. The number of followers are around 3 million and Klout score is 85.

Finally, since the President tweets 0,8 times per day, the generation of return visits is sustained, as well.

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Video-Sharing SitesPresidency’s YouTube account (youtube.com/cbabdullahgul) activated on September 6, 2006, has around one thousand subscribers and over half million views. The page is in Turkish.

Second video-sharing web site is Turkish origined video sharing site Vidivodo. The site is popular in Turkey. In Vidivodo, the President has more than 9 million views.

The comment options are banned by the Presidency and there are no dialog in both sites. 23

Photo-Sharing SitesPresidency has presence in Flickr since February 2012, both in Turkish and English. On Flickr, there are 1071 photos. The share and comment option is prohibited.

President is in Instagram since December 31, 2012, with the account instagram.com/cbabdullahgul. In Instagram, Presidency shared just 22 photos that were followed by around 50 thousand. Majority of the pictures are taken by himself, while the rest by the Presidency photographers. There is information for every photograph in Turkish and English. Instagram usage has ‘like’ and ‘comment’ options. There is a moderation about the comments to avoid any inappropiate use.

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Dialogic capacity of Instagram

Ease of interface no proper website attachment and no about us topic

✗

Dialogic loop 42 posts,143.897 likes, 3.455 comments. Each photo takes 3.426 likes and 82 comments

✔

Usefulness of the information

every photograph contains information with English translations

✔

Conservation of visitors

65 thousand followers ✔

Generation of return visits

0,3 post per day ✗

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Photo-Sharing SitesPresidency has presence in Flickr since February 2012. There are both a Turkish version (flickr.com/photos/cbabdullahgul) and an English version (flickr.com/photos/trpresidency). On Flickr, there are 1071 photos. The share and comment option is prohibited.

President is in Instagram since December 31, 2012, with the account instagram.com/cbabdullahgul.

He is using Flickr and Instagram only for sharing photographs. In Instagram, Presidency shared just 22 photos that were followed by around 50 thousand. Majority of the pictures are taken by himself, while the rest by the Presidency photographers. There is information for every photograph in Turkish and English. Instagram usage has ‘like’ and ‘comment’ options. There is a moderation about the comments to avoid any inappropiate use.

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Dialogic capacities of photo-sharing sites

In Flickr there are no feedback channels for a dialogue.Instagram application is searched for dialogic principles, Ease of interface exists since the link is easy to find and navigates to the application. However, in the Instagram application there is no proper website attachment and no about us topic.

Dialogic loop: Instagram has a user friendly like and comment option. There are 42 posts with 143.897 likes and 3.455 comments. As a result, for every photograph that is shared there are 3.426 likes and 82 comments, indicating the existence of dialogic loop.

The usefulness of information is confirmed, since every photograph contains information with English translations.

Conservation of visitors. The total number of followers are more than 65 thousand while President Gül does not follow anyone.

Generation of return visits, for 130 days there are 42 total posts with 0,3 post per day which is sufficient to generate interest for visitors to return.

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Mobile applicationsThere are 2 mobil applications for IOS and Android. IOS application for iphone and ipod is launched on August 28, 2011. Since then the application has been uploaded around 35.000 times. The application has an English version. From the application one can access instant news about the President, First Lady Hayrünnisa Gül and the Secretariat General of Presidency. The application includes news, social media links (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr), contact info and an application that once can write to President Gül.

The second mobile application is for Android. The application is released on May 10, 2013, There is an English version also. Both applications are free and facilliated as a broadcast medium.

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ResultFive social media usage YouTube, Vidivodo, Flickr, IOS and Android applications can not be examined among dialogic principles since they have no feedback options.

However, the other three practices are definitely more supportive. In Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, there are open channels for feedback. Both technically and dialogically these three practices can be accepted as dialogical.

The main subject of using social media practices is to give information about the President’s agenda such as national and international visits, ceremonies and receptions. His personal Twitter messages contain information on his visits, messages on national and religious days. Interestingly, he prefers not to comment on critical national or international political issues. The tone of the President is quite formal but still there are some traces of intimacy of an ordinary citizen who plays snowball or complains about the trafic jam in Istanbul.

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