Data Science in Politics: How Big Data is Transforming Political Campaigns

Data Science in Politics: Modern technology has changed how political campaigning strategies are implemented. For instance, the newly evolved branch of contemporary technology in data science and big data has enormous potential to analyze and generate statistics on users’ behavioral patterns and journeys across every touchpoint. However, Big Data and Data Science have specific critical guidelines that should be followed.

How Is the Big Data Changing the Way Political Campaigns Are Done?

The Role of Data Science in Today’s Politics

Statistical data brings much more diverse change than just impacting the commercial half of everyone’s life. Nowadays, companies are engaged in data warehousing and mining users’ data, which enables them to figure out users’ journeys as social units.

Collectively, these data charts help to reshape societies’ psychological and emotional fabric. Since politics is embedded in the structural roots of human culture and governance, data science plays a significant role in impacting the country’s political sphere.

Now, the question arises: Is data science limited to creating targeted political Ads? This is not the case, as there lies a bigger picture.

Using Big Data Tools for Micro-Targeting Voters for Political Campaigns

Data Science in Politics:

To mark his victory in politics, President Barack Obama virtually called Data Science the most important field, as political parties have started to leverage the potential of Big Data to micro-target voters across every level.

The key in political campaigns is information that should be properly disseminated to the target audience. In this pursuit, campaign managers have started delivering highly powerful yet personalized messages to targeted individual voters.

Before the internet era, political parties generally used voter’s addresses, party affiliations, history, and a few other touchpoints as information to target them.

Unlike in the past, detailed voter information, including behavioral patterns, is now available to campaign managers and parties.

For instance, there are firms like L2 Political that gather voter information through traditional and digital means for strategizing better political campaigns.

After the assimilation of voter’s data through digital algorithms, voters are targeted through respective campaigns of their interest.

Fathoming Election Data Analytics

The classic case of using data analytics in politics was during Barack Obama’s presidential election. During this time, public awareness was raised through the perspective and constructive use of data analysis.

Though it was not the introduction of campaign analytics, it was considered significant in American politics. In American Politics, both the parties – Democrats and Republicans- campaigning at a supreme level have access to substantial data and statistical resources to optimize their strategies.

Both parties hand over the voters’ data to their respective candidates, which is authentic, properly structured, and complete. This collective data is used for ideating political campaigns accordingly.

Data Science in Politics:

However, for smaller campaigns, the story is different altogether. Candidates contesting for local office, those from the major national parties, and even those who have failed to get enough traction to meet the party’s expectations are considered to have not used the power of data properly.

Not every political campaign is intended only for candidates contesting for national elections. Campaigning for political actions such as issue activism, voter registration, and petition filling also needs substantial use of data science.

Generally, many parties and candidates having proper resources tend to take the support of vendors for big data and analytics. At the same time, some prefer to implement their campaigns without using data at all.

Using Cloud Computing & Data Science to Win the Political Campaigns

Many technological evolutions are occurring nowadays. The first is the authorized use of public cloud computing that acts as a virtual warehouse for storing the public’s structured and unstructured data safely and cost-effectively.

The second technological evolution is the growing use of data science tools, such as statistical and analytics tools, which are now in their sixth generation.

The all-new emerging technological advancement of modern times is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is used to understand voters’ and users’ behavioral patterns. So, where does the magical confluence of voters and their data occur?

It is all about targeting voters who are unsure. We target them by understanding their behavioral journey and their interests online by mapping their attributes over the websites and social media sites they visit and engage in.

Subsequently, placing targeted ads according to their interest in their preferred channels will engage the voters effectively.

All You Need to Know about Data-Driven Political Campaigns

Data-driven campaigns have become an integral and prominent feature of political campaigns globally. Nowadays, political campaigners show evidence and proof of how effective the use of data plays a significant role in electoral success.

However, the use of data for political campaigns comes with certain limitations in democratic countries, as it raises privacy concerns. Therefore, data must be used legitimately and authentically to target voters.

Analytics Powering Data-Driven Political Campaigns

Though data-enabled campaigns are pivotal, some have little or no knowledge of political data analytics companies. These data analytics companies are professionals who know how to optimize the data analytics system and target voters according to their interests.

These analytics companies significantly drive electoral success for a party or a candidate contesting the election. Data analytics is undoubtedly a powerful marketing tool that has a high impact on electoral success.

Data Analytics Tools for Political Campaigns

Several political campaign data analytics tools are as follows:

• Polls
• Stripe
• Donations
• Canvasing
• User Data
• Dialer data
• Voter registration
• Social Media Stats
• Sales Merchandising
• Assumed Turnout
• Append Services
• Google Analytics
• Online Survey data
• Voters Outreach data
• Competitive analysis
• Voters Data Churning
• Door-to-door surveys
• Historical data of voters
• Targeted Advertisements
• Census and fundraising data
• Data from events and seminars
• Data through email campaigns
• Media and market research data
• Voters’ psychographics and demographics

In a Nutshell

One needs to be aware and attentive to the best data collection practices. Suppose the gathered data is structured, responsive, genuine, latest, transparent, and understandable. In that case, it will be considered an asset and powerful tool to influence voters and increase the chances of winning the election.

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