Political advertising and its impact on the participation of users in social networks: presidential elections of Colombia 2018

Abstract The research presented in this article analyzes the strategies of the political announcements published on Twitter by the candidates for the second round of presidential election in Colombia, in the year 2018. The purpose and focus of the message of 425 posts was identified and a negative binomial regression model was applied to establish the effects of these elements on the participation of users on Twitter measured by likes, comments and retweets. There were two relevant findings: a) aggressive political advertising – when candidates attack, or defend against an opponent – increases the participation of users on Twitter; b) Messages with personal themes of the candidate have greater social support than publications that address political proposals.