Introduction
On Thursday February 18, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Tolu Ogunlesi as his Special Assistant on Digital/New Media. Tolu will head the president’s new media team.

There is no gainsaying the fact that social media played a decisive role in helping Buhari become the first Nigerian to oust a sitting president at the ballot box and Tolu is one of the generals in the foray.

Before then the Social Media President, Barack Obama had in 2007 employed social media to create an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans.

It is therefore no surprise to see politicians today incorporating new media as an integral part of their media team. With it you can reach more people without the filter of the traditional media, target your audience with precision and receive almost immediate feedback.

However, because we are just learning the ropes in this part of the world, the tactics and strategies employed by the handlers have left a lot to be desired. Most of them have remained routine, predictable and overly cautious. Their focus has remained the contents to the detriment of how to effectively and efficiently communicate them to the public.

In this piece, I tried to offer insight into how new media works in political communication and the strategies to adopt in selling a political brand.

What is New Media?
According to Wikipedia, New media refers to content available on-demand through the Internet, accessible on any digital device, usually containing interactive user feedback and creative participation. A defining characteristic of new media is dialogue. New Media transmit content through connection and conversation. It enables people around the world to share, comment on, and discuss a wide variety of topics. Unlike any of past technologies, New Media is grounded on an interactive community.

From the above, we can see that the essence of new media in the life of a politician is to promote political participation among his followers. The goal is to bring a sense of spontaneity and accessibility to one of the most choreographed and constricted positions.

New Media Channels
Contrary to the current practices of many appointees in Nigeria, new media is not about Facebook and Twitter alone. Several social media channels are needed as means to spread news, post unique content, reinforce the brand and engage with stakeholders.

There is a need to understand that not everyone is on Twitter. Even the ubiquitous Facebook isn’t the right social media solution for every audience. Understanding who your target are, where they are connecting, and providing them useful information is what makes social media successful.

For example, Barack Obama has a presence on basically every social network of note, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, podcasting, MySpace, TUMBLR, Google+ and YouTube. In January this year, he joined Snapchat in order to connect with those on that platform, and his team is skilled at using all these channels to campaign, communicate and entertain his millions of followers.

Content is chosen based on audience and relevance, using each channel’s unique strengths to best present the information.

The media team should constantly monitor best practices of social media use and experimenting with content types that work best with each channel.

Single Source of Information
We hope with the coming on board of Ogunlesi, we will now have a single source official account for each of the president’s media channels. The current practice where information is not centralized and you have to visit Femi Adeshina, Garba Shehu and the APC accounts to know what is happening with the president is inadequate.

@NGRPresident Twitter handle is operated from Aso Rock. Unfortunately, this account was updated last on December 30, 2015 during the inaugural media chat of Mr. President. This should be taken over immediately by the new media team and make it the single source of news on Twitter for Mr. President. The same can be replicated for all other social media accounts. It is a misnomer to follow Tolu Ogunlesi on Twitter before we can read tweets on latest information/activities of Mr. President. Tolu’s account should be for his personal endeavor and/or as a compliment to Mr. President’s official account. There is a need to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Boardroom Strategies
The media team should have ambitious plan for digital presence of their principals and should use a variety of unique techniques to engage different online audiences.

For example, President Obama’s digital team is presently consists of about 20 aides, led by Jason Goldman, a 39-year-old former executive at Twitter, Blogger and Medium. They spend their days managing his social media accounts, including live-tweeting presidential speeches in 140-character squibs from the White House Twitter account and using analytics to track which issues may be most ripe for a web video or graphic and then producing them.

The team starts the day by attending communications meetings to help figure out when Mr. Obama should insert himself into the digital mix and alert him when something is trending on Twitter or generating heavy traffic on Facebook.

This is how new media should run.

New media should not be only for uploading statements and addresses. There should be a daily plan on what is to be done, what is trending, which matter to respond to and inform the president accordingly.

… Continue in Part II

http://www.channel801.com/new-media-and-political-communications-strategies-and-tactics-i/