Afghan election candidate goes digital

I was delighted to hear this week that a revolution of the social media kind is happening in Afghanistan.

Whilst Twitter is still causing Tehran to tremble, Dr Ashraf Ghani, a candidate in the forthcoming Afghan election has been emailing campaign messages and policy to supporters that have internet access.

These supporters in turn host community events where it is hoped Ghani’s manifesto will be scribbled down and communicated by word-of-mouth to remote communities. It is great to see old (WOM) and new (digital) strands of PR working in harmony on a brief such as this.

The second part of the campaign is to target Afghans that live abroad and get them to raise funds and become politically aware of their homeland. Ghani is using Twitter and Youtube to win their hearts and minds.

The ever expanding use of social media demonstrates that digital PR is not a fad. With 1.5 billion people online, digital PR will eventually get everywhere – and rightly so.

Whilst digital is not going to replace traditional PR; clients will start expecting a digital strand to campaigns. After all, if they are going digital in Afghanistan, why aren’t you?

It remains to be seen how effective this social media and WOM campaign will be in a country where only 5% have internet access. However anything that can help bring about democracy and stability to the region is to be applauded.