The paper explores social networks as channels of political communication; their potential in foreign and domestic election campaigns has been examined. The case of 2018 presidential election campaign in the Russian Federation has been used for a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the use of social networks by candidates for the presidency of the Russian Federation in 2018 using the index technique. The purpose of the study is to identify the general level of citizen involvement in all social networks of an active actor from all the candidates for the presidency of the Russian Federation in 2018. For this, it is necessary to determine the parameters which allow measuring the level of citizen involvement in all social networks of active actors and determining the “weight” of selected parameters for measuring the level of involvement as well. To assess the quality of work in the network based on the data of an expert survey conducted as part of the study, original formulas for calculating the engagement index were developed. These indicators were measured by such indicators of engagement as likes, reposts, comments, views; “expert coefficients” were used in the formula, which take into account the importance of each indicator. According to the results of the index analysis in such social networks as Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, the conclusions were drawn about the level of user involvement in social networks of candidates for the presidency of the Russian Federation in 2018. The authors have concluded that in Russia at the moment the opportunities of social networks are starting to be recognized, and their functionality provide a great research area.

Akopova Tatyana Sergeevna, Candidate of Sciences (Sociology), Associate Professor, Department of Social and Political Theories, P. G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University, 10, Sovetskaya st., Yaroslavl, 150000, Russian Federation, tel.: 8(4852)329605, e-mail: akopova_tatyana@mail.ru 

Tikhonova Anna Vyacheslavovna, SMM Specialist, Informatsionnoye agentstvo Verkhnyaya Volga, 17, Maksimov st., Yaroslavl, 150000, Russian Federation, tel.: 8(4852)329605, e-mail: tikhonova.anka@yandex.ru

Akopova T S., Tikhonova A.V. The Use of Indices in the Political Marketing Research of Election Campaigns in Social Networks. The Case of 2018 Presidential Campaign in the Russian Federation. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series Political Science and Religion Studies, 2019, vol. 30, pp. 18-31. https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3380.2019.30.18 (in Russian)

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