One of the strength to boost social media publicity. (President Tsai Ing-Wen)
The presidential election candidates of each party is going to be announced soon. Candidates are taking the opportunity to collaborate with famous online celebrities to gain more popularity while Tsai Ing-wen and William Lai's initial telephone poll have started in full swing.
How will "Taiwan KOL x Politicians" affect Internet opinion volume? AsiaKOL is taking the collabration between President Tsai Ing-Wen and online celebrities as a subject example to find out how YouTubers aid politicians generating popularity through video content.
Take a glimpse of how "Online Celebrity Effect" boosts politicians' social media publicity via Tsai Ing-Wen's Fan Group
Before mid-March, the number of netizens' comments in Tsai Ing-Wen's social media platforms were mainly from Facebook and Instagram while YouTube was relativly lacking in interest. However, after the release of the two videos of "Tsai Ing-Wen x Tsai A-Ga" on 19th March, the popularity of her presence in YouTube diacussions has increased significantly which drives the opinion of Tsai Ing-Wen's other social media platforms even higher.
With a further analysis on fans' discussion, "Online Celebrity Effect" is the main reason that increases the number of social media comments. E.g. from 19th March to 26th March, with the blessing of two famous online celebrities, Tsai A-Ga and Annie, the number of comments reached its peak. The first peak in April was due to the diplomatic activities "Ocean Democracy Tour" from end of March till the beginning of April. The second peak was resulted from "The Night Night Show with Brian Tseng", the program of STR Network.
According to the change in Tsai Ing-Wen's community review numbers, below are two main reasons of successful "Online Celebrity Effect".
Popularity
By collaborating with popular online celebrities, politicians may attract more followers due to KOL's high awareness.
Video Content
Online celebrities are good at creating unique videos which not only gain more publicity, but also makes politics getting closer to daily life, and then encouraging fans to be involved in the discussions.
Tsai Ing-Wen actively collaborates with popular online celebrities, Spicy Taiwanese Girl, stirring up hot topics which increases internet opinion volume.
Apart from Tsai A-Ga and The Night Night Show with Brian Tseng, President Tsai Ing-Wen also guest-starred in videos with other famous online celebrities, such as appearing in YouTuber, Annie's channel with her cats and purchasing floral carnations with YouTuber Mom & Dad on Mother's Day. Besides that, one of the online celebrities, Guan-Zhang, shared his experience about bumping into President Tsai during his broadcast which generated a fairly high viewership.
The contents of "Online Celebrities feat. Tsai Ing -Wen" videos can be divided into three types which are "political type, daily-life type and discussion type".
"Political type" invites politicians to discuss about policies and public issues. For example, Tsai A-Ga’s "The first YouTuber in the world who confronts President." video. Online celebrities usually further heats up with issues on behalf of netizens which tempts the audience to continue watching their videos.
"Daily-life type" is more about everyday life topics which often shows the closeness of politicians and the people. For example, Tsai Ing-Wen's interaction with her cats in Annie's channel and accompanying YouTuber Mom & Dad on Mother's Day.
"Discussion Type" is when online celebrities take a specific politician as the subject of their discussion. For example, Guan-Zhang talked about his point of view towards different politicians. This shows that various types of video contents from KOL allow netizens who are political fanatics or otherwise to further understand public figures while at the same time, create a higher online discussion-volume.
Tsai A-Ga isn't afraid of President! KOL x Politicians = Better Network Benefit?
In comparison between the two collaborative videos "Tsai A-Ga and Tsai Ing-Wen" which released in both individual's YouTube channel on 19th March, Tsai A-Ga has received far more comments than Tsai Ing-Wen, regardless of viewership (nearly 2 million times) or the number of Likes (6.9 thousand times). As such, Tsai A-Ga also received a relatively high number of Dislikes (5,048 times).
In addition, the two collaborative videos between "Tsai A-Ga and Tsai Ing-Wen" also arouses the discussion of KOL's political neutrality among netizens. Most of the fans liked the two videos. Some netizens feels that it has created a better impression of President Tsai while some disagrees. Netizens feel that presidential election is a serious issue which should not rely on online celebrities. With regards to that, Tsai A-Ga posted in IG and said that he has also worked with other parties and is keen to try on any topics as long as it's novel and interesting.
There is six more months to go for the 2020 presidential election. From the case of Tsai Ing-Wen's collaboration with online celebrities, KOL can surely increase the degree of online discussion and netizens' sympathy towards politicians. However, the participation of online celebrities is still controversial. Thus, how to make good use of the influence of online celebrities and to reduce the negative emotions which will be an important topic for future "Politicians x Online Celebrities". Can other politician figures, Ko Wen-Je, Daniel Han and Terry Guo take this as a good lesson? Let's pay attention on the follow-up development!
