You’re already familiar with Facebook and Instagram, two social networking apps owned by Meta and critical to reaching voters, but you may not know much about WhatsApp, another app in the family. WhatsApp is a messaging app that allows users to communicate via text, audio, and video with other users around the world, for free.
While WhatsApp isn’t as popular in the United States as it its around the world, it is emerging as another channel that campaigners should be aware of. After reading this article, you’ll know more about who uses WhatsApp, its features, and the ways it can be used in campaigning.
Who Uses WhatsApp
About 29% of US adults use WhatsApp at least monthly, among voters, it’s about 19%. Even thought the adoption of WhatsApp isn’t as widespread as we see with some other platforms, it over indexes among Hispanic Americans, with 46% saying they use the app, compared to just 23% of Black Americans or 16% of White Americans.
This popularity among immigrant and diaspora communities (for staying in touch with family abroad) makes WhatsApp a unique channel to reach voters that might be missed on other platforms.
Key WhatsApp Features
Group Chats
WhatsApp Group Chats allow up to 1024 members in a shared conversation. Just like in a Facebook group, every member can see all messages, making it useful for discussions, coordination, or planning.
Broadcast Lists
Broadcast Lists let a user send out a message to many contacts individually (recipients do not see a group or each other). It’s akin to BCC email or a blind mass text – ideal for one-way announcements or updates. You can include up to 256 contacts per broadcast list, but contacts will only receive the broadcast if they have first saved the sender’s number in their phone.
Voice and Video Messaging
You can send audio and video of any size to your groups, lists, and contacts, making it easy to share multi-media quickly, without worrying about an algorithm or the costs of MMS texting.
Status Updates
Similar to stories on Instagram, these are 24 hour text-based updates that appear to your contacts within the platform.
Pros and Cons of WhatsApp
Pros
- WhatsApp is free to use unlike traditional SMS text messaging marketing.
- WhatsApp is cross-platform, meaning it’s available on both iPhone and Android, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop.
- WhatsApp is tied to a user’s phone number, so if you have a voter’s cell phone, you can connect with them on the platform.
Cons
- There’s no native discovery or virality on WhatsApp. It’s not a public social network so there are no followers or searchable posts or hashtags.
- There’s no paid advertising or algorithmic amplification on WhatsApp, so growth is only through contact networks.
- Users must opt-in for key features and there are limits on how many users you can reach at once.
How Campaigners Around the World Use WhatsApp
India
India is WhatsApp’s largest market with over 500 million users, and it has become a cornerstone of Indian political campaigning. Political parties there have built massive grassroots networks on the platform to reach voters across the country at various levels.
The parties designate volunteer “WhatsApp warriors” to manage clusters of groups. Content cascades from the party’s headquarter’s to hundreds of thousands of local groups in a decentralized fashion.
Brazil
More than 120 million Brazilians (total population: 210 million) were on WhatsApp during the 2018 campaign. The platform was credited with helping to boost Jair Bolsonaro, considered a fringe candidated, to victory. Studies showed that a vast majority of viral political messages on WhatsApp groups favored Bolsonaro.
Mexico
In Mexico, voter outreach is done through WhatsApp Business accounts where campaigns and parties invite supporters to sign up for election information.
Conclusion
As Hispanic Americans continue to make up a larger part of the electorate generally and the Republican coalition specifically, campaigners need to familiarize themselves with WhatsApp. It’s an essential channel for reaching these voters and offers both rewards and challenges for campaigners.
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