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How Much Does it Cost a Social Network for a Political Candidate in Mexico?
 Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari - PVNN
February 14, 2010
We know that in Mexico expenses to promote a presidential candidate are regulated and must be quantified. Now, after Mr. B. Obama's success in social networks in the US, there have been a number of Mexican enterprises that have been created which insure to whoever gets a contract with them, his (or her) message will reach the people wherever they are in the country. Coast to coast and border to… northern Canada; for the millions who live there and also in the US; also in Mexico. In other words, the candidate "will be elected". Of course the investment is very high but nobody questions the Mexican expertise (whatever that might mean) in the creation of computer social networks in Mexico.
The question here is "how much" actually costs a computer social network for a Mexican presidential candidate. Elections will come up soon and the first networks will be created in 2010 and later on for the presidential election in 2012. Let's try to tag a "price" considering the components described in this article. The components hereby discussed will take into account about 90% of all expenses. The goal will be to generate a computer social network and to keep it going and use it later on as an "acquisition" for the political party. Sympathizers will be "added" and I will give a tentative figure considering components included herein.
To begin with, consider the horizons of the political marketing, its costs as evaluated elsewhere in the planet. My basis are expenses in the US and France. Particularly I do not want to consider the Mexican enterprises as we have to be realistic: What do we know in Mexico about true political marketing? It is recent that candidates are elected in Mexico through a voting procedure. We are as many other countries in our "beginning of our democracy". It is a subtle marketing approach to tell to the people "how so and so should be YOUR best electoral option"; this marketing and corresponding slogans have a cost. There is also a concept of "image" physical, social and human but this again, costs. Meetings, which also cost in renting places. The usual invited "coke" and the typical Mexican snack that will be offered to those people. Also in Mexico the well known "acarreados" (brought or compelled to come to the meeting) who are present in the meetings against a sum of money. But then the political party (or the candidate himself) has to pay for all that. We also have to consider indirect supports: meetings for or by the party which are not directly considering the candidate in question but "it just happens that" publicity or other issues are "indirectly" brought up. That also has a cost.
Costs also include the political speeches that should be coherent with the party's policy. Mexico is in its infancy here. These slogans which really cost a fortune are in general very simplistic and very short. Conceived to mass manipulate the opinion they go far deep. They are charged with psychological and marketing analysis and are intended to impact massively the listeners: These slogans will come up in the radio and in displays (small and large) and the new issue: SMS cell phone messages. Another way which is extremely popular in Mexico is the distribution in the streets of printed papers and bulletins. This distribution is completely illegal but the concept of illegal has many variants in Mexico. Illegal usually has a "name" attached to it: You can be fully illegal but not considered illegal depending on your pedigree. To complete this part, we have to question "what" we are going to do with the social network once it is created and primary elections are over.
Up until here, the reader must realize that this activity needs really deep professional planning, it concerns times places frequencies and forms. All of this has a cost. It goes in the millions of pesos. Just imagine: Try to break in the consumer market with a new type of refreshment. The planning process it requires and the budget it needs is very similar to the one described for a political candidate.
Now, let's get into the computer social network itself. Computer wise, this starts with a computer network with a fast ISP service. Which social networks are we going to use? The most popular ones (disorderly) are facebook, tweeter, MySpace, Hi5 and so very many others. As of today, tweeter is the most popular one right after facebook. Other non social networks use Microsoft's messenger and "discussion forums" in Gmail from Google including the new "Buzz" application. Three days old social network approach in Gmail. Yahoo Mexico accepts paid publicity "with interaction". The candidate must have international and national exposure and networks or pseudo national networks. There must be a mixture of them all. Each of the networks cited, offer different advantages to add newcomers to the network. Let's explore how a particular functionality in facebook operates. The function is "survey master" and "survey friends" ("encuesta" in facebook in Spanish). This application has as a goal to obtain certain user preferences in a given topic. In order to use this application, we have to consider a certain type of marketing to see which type of "friends" will be included in the survey. There are various levels of confidentiality that must be sorted out. This description is only oriented to show how a "new friend" can be added to a social network. It is clear that with respect to responses there are criteria that have to be added to select "friends" in the social network.
Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari is a former electoral officer of the United Nations Organization. Contact him at gui.voting(at)gmail.com
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