Effective Management of Online Teams for Political Campaigns or Election Watchdogs:

The Case for Communications Discipline

Engr. Pierre Tito Galla, PECE Conference on Social Media and Technology for Democracy Promotion
International Foundation for Electoral Systems Embassy of The United States USAID February 22, 2013
Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila, Philippines

Effective Management of Online Teams: The Case for Communications Discipline

Outline Social media and the PH political battlespace
Roles, common pitfalls and challenges

Communications discipline
Strategic, operational, and tactical Protip!

Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE PHILIPPINE POLITICAL BATTLESPACE

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Social Media: The New Area of Operations in the PH Political Battlespace

Netizen statistics Netizen influence on mainstream media Netizen influence on pop culture Netizen influence in offline engagements

Dynamic feedback loop influence

Simply put: and vice versa.
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"An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. (Patton)

ONLINE TEAM MANAGEMENT: COMMUNICATIONS DISCIPLINE IS A CORE PRINCIPLE

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Online Teams: Multirole Assets in the PH Political Battlespace

Tactical deployment
Expeditionary force role Special operations team role Air support role

Strategic deployment
Intelligence Winning hearts and minds Consolidating gains
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Common Pitfalls and Challenges in the Deployment of Online Teams

Common pitfalls
Dead air Off-script Misengagement

Challenges of managers of online teams

Outsourced/ offshored operations model Logistics, discipline
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Management is Management, Even of Political Online Teams BUT!

Management and leadership skills and methods remain the same and generally applicable. But why is communications discipline an essential additional core management principle?
Credibility is constantly under threat Credibility is currency

Deceptively simple concept. Extremely difficult to get right online.

COMMUNICATIONS DISCIPLINE

Strategic Communications Discipline

Key anchors
Final decision maker Objective Overall narrative and supporting narratives Contingencies for changes to narrative

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Operational Communications Discipline

Key anchors
The spokespersons, spokesteams, support teams The target audience and targeted scripts The schedules and response times Disavowal procedures

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Tactical Communications Discipline

Key anchors
Opening moves Discussion handling Debate handling Troll handling Disengagement SOPs

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MANAGING A POLITICAL ONLINE TEAM? ASK YOURSELVES:

Is everyone playing the right roles? Yes? Good. No? Train. Is everyone on the same playbook? Yes? Great. No? Practice. Is everyone on the same page? Yes? Good. No? Concede.
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Protip: Learn from the Professionals

Protip!

Learn and employ the best practices of professional community managers!

The wheel need not be reinvented.
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Stay updated on the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom! Facebook: facebook.com/groups/Democracy.Net.PH Twitter: twitter.com/phnetdems (@PHNetDems) Visit http://democracy.net.ph

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