Live broadcasts, announcements and even challenges are part of the first electoral fires that already warm social networks 14 months before the elections. But this arena is not easy for those who aspire to the presidential chair.
Analysts believe the electoral market is surrounded by “old school men”, with little interest in social networks, so the challenge of convincing more than 2.6 million Facebook users and 400,000 Twitter users (according to Latamclick.com data from 2015) is huge.
Things get complicated because politics is not among the biggest interests of users, who prefer lighter issues.
To date, the PLN has figures such as José María Figueres (with some advantage in the use of the technological channel), Antonio Álvarez, Rolando González, Clinton Cruickshank and Sigifredo Aiza. The PUSC has Rafael Ortiz and Rodolfo Piza. The Libertarian talk about Natalia Díaz and Otto Guevara, while in the PAC you can hear names like Ana Helena Chacón, Epsy Campbell and Carlos Alvarado. Frente Amplio, on the other hand, has Edgardo Araya as a possibility.
According to Esteban Mora, specialist in analysis and monitoring of social networks, the best candidate is the least known, which was demonstrated when Luis Guillermo Solís won. Figures like the current Minister of Labor, Carlos Alvarado, have a favorable condition if he decides to step into the arena.
The formulas should vary, social networks are changing. It takes creativity, the electoral market is full of decision-making dinosaurs. In the PLN there have been some brushstrokes, the “contestatones” of Figueres (Figueres answers your questions) are a valid resource that puts Álvarez on a rush,”
said Mora.
For political scientist Gustavo Araya, aspirants should be more aggressive in using networks beyond Facebook. One weighing factor is that almost half of the electoral roll is under 40 years old and uses these tools intensively.
This is how social networks are used in Costa Rica:
-53% of people use social networks and 90% of them use Facebook, 58% use WhatsApp, 18% use Instagram, 11% prefers Twitter and only 9% choose YouTube.