A conceptual framework for an online political brand persona from a social media-based political brand storytelling perspective

Little is still known in the South African context regarding how political brands can use political brand storytelling with an online political brand persona on social media to differentiate a political brand from the opposition. What is also not clear is how the online political brand persona can successfully position political issues for the political consumer. To address the current paucity of research, this qualitative cross-sectional study investigated one political brand’s political brand storytelling and use of an online brand persona on social media to propose and empirically verify elements of a conceptual framework as heuristic for political parties to build their online brand personas. In doing so, the study addressed four research questions through semi-structured expert interviews and deductive qualitative content analysis. The findings provide some invaluable insights, firstly, from communication professionals in South Africa’s public relations agencies who are responsible for creating content for political party social media platforms; and secondly, from a South African political brand that is active on the Facebook and Twitter social media platforms. The final proposed elements for the conceptual framework are based on several foundational principles, namely political brand, the political brand strategy, social media political brand voice, creating the in-group, and the online political brand persona. The study’s new theoretical contributions consist of three elements, which form the basis of the final conceptual framework. These elements are the foundation (political offering), the transformational process (political issue ownership, political brand strategy, and creating the in-group), and the creation of an online political brand persona. The elements of the framework change constantly because of the nature of the political environment. Not only does this study address the current paucity of research in South African and African literature, but it also adds to the body of social media research involving South African political parties and the use of political brand storytelling with an online political brand persona on social media.

South African political parties, Democratic Alliance, online political brand persona, political branding, political issue ownership, social media, social media-based political brand storytelling