Political election won and lost in seconds

Former Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Francis Tolentino, who had been getting flak for the traffic gridlock in Metro Manila, experienced a different kind of traffic from the dancers’ brouhaha – online traffic.

Videos, pictures and memes of The Playgirl dancers gyrating on stage during a Liberal Party campaign sortie in Sta. Cruz Laguna sent the Internet afire. By yesterday morning, the issue had gone viral with thousands of people sharing, commenting and liking the issue concerning Manila traffic’s favorite whipping boy.

This issue can serve as a good eye-opener for political candidates, their political parties and supporters as the campaign for the 2016 elections heat up.

The rules of the media and campaigning game have indeed changed with about 40 million Filipinos hooked online and almost everyone owning a camera-equipped mobile phone. Moreover, many of the tech-savvy millennials are now of voting age.

Here are some tips on how politicians and their political parties can become victors and not victims in the Digital Age campaigning:

Remember there are millions of (digital) eyes everywhere. Conduct yourself in the best behavior whether you are in front of cameras in a national television station or in the far ends of the archipelago because any misbehavior can just be a click away from total personal and political reputation crisis. Ask your staff to carefully check out the campaign program and the people – or dancers – to be invited in campaign rallies.

Keep in mind that during campaign sorties, your supporters – as well as your enemies – are watching. There are people around in your rival’s employ recording your every move and waiting to play up your wrong steps online. There are also members of poll watchdog groups waiting to report your campaign law violations. Then, there are “online mercenaries” desperate to have their five minutes of fame who will contribute your scandalous photo or video to major television networks and the print media.

Play nice even if there are no media persons around. Gone are the days when only tri-media firms can get to report who among the candidates are playing naughty or nice. There are now smart-phone gunslingers itching to shoot (with phone cameras and videos) the bad guys in the online wild, wild west.

Start online consciousness with yourself. In the Digital Age, you now have two personas – your real one known to close friends and relatives and your online persona known to thousands or millions of people. The amount of effort you put into making yourself look good in real life should be the same amount of effort you put into making yourself look good online. Make sure to review your old online posts. This is a gold mine for your enemies and the media. Your posts regarding your posh houses, expensive cars and trips abroad may come back to haunt you.

Tell your relatives, your close friends and neighbors to be very careful of what they say or post online. Anything they say and show online may be used against you in the court of public opinion.

For Lothario politicians, you must fix your skeletons in the closet, more so if you are the type who calls your wife SPO1 (Spouse No. 1). Be sure SPO2 and SPO3 will not post their photos of you and your children with them. Same goes for the expensive house and cars you got for SPO2 and SPO3.

Tell your online media group to be very mindful of what they will post. Some posts can do worse than good, more so if the traditional media picks them up or online groups raise up ruckus against an offensive post. Bad posts are hard to withdraw if they have already gone viral and have been picked up by the traditional media.

Be honest to your tri-media and online team regarding scandalous pictures or videos you might have taken in the past with your lover or lovers. This is just about the right time for spurned lovers or parties of interest to post those videos or pictures online. Make sure your media campaign team has a communication crisis plan to handle such expose.

Put up a good social media and traditional team to monitor all-media developments to put out the fire early. Remember, in the digital world, the first 30 seconds in a communication crisis is critical. Make sure you are in control of the digital world and not clueless about it. Whether you like it or not, the age of Social Media is upon us.

(The writer is an all-media public relations consultant, does integrated traditional and social media campaigns for corporate and political clients. A blogger, he and his firm Dean and Kings Communications (deanandkingsprfirm.com) run about 50 websites and social media sites to effect trending and virality online. You can contact him via email at [email protected]).