Political Marketing Using Social Media and Voting Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66635/17sh9p69Keywords:
political marketing, social media, voting behavior, elections, political brandingAbstract
The present research synthesises existing literature to review the impact of political marketing using social media on voting behaviour. For this, a systematic literature review is conducted. The purpose of the review is to comprehend the present state of research on this topic, identify the themes that prevail in the literature, identify gaps, and suggest a future research agenda. The review systematically analyses scholarly articles published between 2010-2025, focusing on Political marketing using social media and its impact on voting behaviour. Although the overall literature review considered studies published before 2010 to provide historical context, the final analysis and findings are based on 48 papers selected from the period 2010–2025. It uses rigorous screening and inclusion criteria to identify themes that prevail in the present literature and provide a holistic view of the topic. The findings show that the Political marketing field is still growing. However, the literature is disjointed or fragmented and mostly based in the US (United States) setting. Though still in the initial stage, political marketing has a lot of exciting avenues for future research, which we have examined in this paper.
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