Twitter to Manage Emotions in Political Marketing

Abstract

Emotions have a social component that can be defined in terms of the experience of participation. This paper examines how Spanish citizens use Twitter to express their emotions by tweeting their opinions regarding pertinent political decisions. Content analysis was applied to the Twitter accounts of four political parties representing the Spanish electorate. Results show that when Spanish citizens tweeted their opinions about established Spanish political parties, negative emotions (indignation and shame) were more prevalent than positive emotions (hope, joy, and excitement). Furthermore, newer, less experienced political parties managed emotions more effectively than the established political parties did.