A influ?ncia das redes sociais na tomada de decis?o dos eleitores em Portugal

Disserta??o de Mestrado em Marketing apresentada na Escola Superior de Ci?ncias Empresariais do Instituto Polit?cnico de Viana do CasteloNos dias de hoje, as redes sociais fazem inevitavelmente parte da vida quotidiana das pessoas. Desta forma, a comunica??o pol?tica tamb?m deve passar pelos canais de comunica??o digitais, em particular na social media. Neles, ? importante definir uma estrat?gia de marketing e comunica??o digital para captar novos eleitores e consecutivamente mais votos. Tal como nos canais de comunica??o offline, tamb?m no digital um dos pontos indispens?veis na comunica??o pol?tica, ? a imagem do candidato. Esta deve mostrar um estilo pr?prio e que diferencie o candidato dos seus oponentes. O principal objetivo deste estudo ? perceber a influ?ncia das redes sociais na tomada de decis?o de voto dos eleitores portugueses. Ao longo do estudo s?o ainda analisadas diferentes perguntas de investiga??o de forma a analisar quais as redes sociais mais utilizadas para acompanhar a campanha pol?tica online e quais os crit?rios que influenciam a tomada de decis?o de voto. Para alcan?ar o objetivo principal e responder ?s perguntas de investiga??o levantadas, foi efetuada uma pesquisa explorat?ria atrav?s de inqu?ritos por question?rio. Foram realizados tr?s inqu?ritos com base nas elei??es presidenciais de 24 de janeiro de 2021. Os inqu?ritos foram distribu?dos antes, durante e ap?s o final da campanha eleitoral, tendo sido inquiridas 106 pessoas que responderam aos 3 inqu?ritos. Foi ainda utilizado o tipo de amostragem probabil?stica, com duas t?cnicas distintas, a de cachos e a aleat?ria simples. Com os resultados deste estudo, foi poss?vel concluir que apenas 11% dos inquiridos alterou a inten??o de voto decorrente da comunica??o pol?tica efetuada pelos partidos pol?ticos nas redes sociais durante esta campanha eleitoral. A rede social mais utilizada pelos inquiridos foi o Facebook, sendo tamb?m a que consideram mais segura e de confian?a para acompanhar a comunica??o pol?tica nos meios de comunica??o online.Nowadays, social media makes inevitably part of people?s daily life. Thus, Political communication should also go through digital communication channels, particularly social media. On them, it is important to define a marketing and communication strategy to attract new electors and, therefore, more votes. Such as offline communication channels, also on digital platforms, one of the main points of political communication is the image of the candidate. This image must show personal style from the candidate which will make a difference comparing to the opponents. The aim of this study is to understand the influence of social media on the vote decision process of the Portuguese electors. Throughout the study different research questions are analysed, to understand which social networks are used the most to follow up the online political campaign and which criteria influences the vote decision taking. To achieve the main purpose, and to answer to the research questions asked, an exploratory inquiry was done through survey by questionnaire. Three surveys were conducted based on the presidential elections of the 24th of January of 2021. The surveys were distributed before, during and after the electoral campaign, being inquired 106 people, who responded to the three surveys. Probability sampling was also used, with two distinct techniques, cluster, and random sampling. In conformity with the results of this study, it was possible to conclude that only 11% of the respondents changed their vote intention due to the political communication conducted by political parties during the electoral campaign. The social network used the most was Facebook, which is also considered to be the safest and most trustworthy to follow up with the political communication on online media