Comparing 2011 General Election and 2014 Presidency Election in Turkey with Regard to Political Marketing

Leaders and political parties which are one of the products of political marketing are the political products. Social issues and the requirements that are the result of these issues determine the route map of leaders and the party programme. It is hard for a party and for a leader that do not embrace neither their grassroots nor the needers of the grassroots of other parties, to protect their position. Social media being used as a instrument of political marketing plays a crucial role in especially affecting young electorate at the present time. This instrument have been begun to be used by politicians actively in Turkey recently. Till the enact of the Law No. 5678 which made an amendment in 1982 Constitution in 2007, the President of Turkey had been elected by the votes of the parliamentarians in Turkish Grand National Assembly. As a result of the amendment in 1982 Constitution in 2007, Turkish citizens have become enable in electing the President of Turkey via referendum. From a different point of view, this amendment also, hereinafter, enables candidates to make their own propaganda in order to increase their votes. In this paper, 2014 Presidency Election in Turkey in which there were three candidates Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN, Ekmeleddin Mehmet İHSANOĞLU and Selahattin DEMİRTAŞ, is considered in terms of using social media. The aim of the paper is to present the differences of the propaganda instruments of the candidates that they used in election process, and how these instruments affected the results of the elections. It is also sought that how the usage of social media and number of followers affect the results of the elections. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s5p13