Online Engagement and Impact: The Case of Greek Politicians during the Financial Crisis

In this paper the authors studied how Greek politicians use their Internet presence and in particular social media to engage citizens, examining the perceived significance of establishing an online presence and the motivating and hindering factors for doing so. The authors also studied how online strategies are implemented and executed in three different periods, namely pre-elections, a crisis period (in the authors’ case the Greek sovereign debt crisis) and a ‘normal’ period. To answer the authors’ research questions the authors adapted a social media conceptual framework to online political presence. Data was collected via in-depth interviews with candidates of 5 different political parties taking part in the general elections of 2012. The authors’ analysis suggests that although politicians are increasingly interested in engaging with citizens via online technologies, their efforts are not always focused on achieving measurable and tangible results. Politicians' online strategies need to be organised around the concepts of communication, engagement and influence and not around the electronic spaces where these take place, i.e. the objectives and the means need to be clearly distinguished and utilised. The authors discuss the implications of their findings from a theoretical and practical perspective, in the context of online political marketing and political participation and engagement.