“Our entire organizational chain is animated by people who have had to do with the right. And therefore with the Brothers of Italy but also, for example, with the National Alliance ”. Mauro Rotelli, the national manager of the Communication Department of FDIhas no doubts: those who have had a “direct involvement in the party” must think about the contents that end up on social networks.
Rotelli follows in the footsteps of Giorgia Meloni since the latter became Minister of Youth in 2008. He was a consultant at the time, 10 years later he was elected to the House.
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Rotelli, why is party membership so important to your communication strategy?
“Political sensitivity is indispensable. An external agency would put us on a par with any commercial client ”.
FDI’s election campaign, like those of other parties, will be deeply influenced by social media. Does experience, gut, or an algorithm count for effective communication?
“The difference will be made by the content. If it’s good, it will ride the algorithm. Of course, everything changes from social to social. On Facebook we will focus, to convey the messages, on graphics that resemble icons and apps. More generally we will use video pills to explain our program. And we will continue to use YouTubewhere Giorgia Meloni is very strong ”.
Why does Meloni work on YouTube?
“We bet on it from the start, we use it to share the longest videos. His interventions, for example, even last 40 minutes. Or interviews, like the one released recently to Fox News. The views are important, and they have been since before Meloni climbed up positions in the polls ”.
How is Giorgia Meloni declined on social media?
“The line we have always held is that of authenticity. There is a small staff that follows her and then refers to me. We try to change what it says as little as possible, even her being strong and decisive in her affirmations. In short, let’s just try to tell it ”.
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Who approves posts about the party leader?
“Giorgia Meloni herself. She is very fussy, she vidima everything personally ”.
He did discuss his choice to share the video published by the Messenger which testifies to a rape that took place on the street in Piacenza. Letta strongly criticized the choice to share it, Meloni replied providing her reasons. Many argue that the election campaign on social media, with this video, has passed the mark. What do you think of these controversies and above all how did you decide to publish it?
The campaign has long since passed its mark and not by our will or by Giorgia Meloni. The rape of Piacenza is a very serious fact. The posted video (which was later removed, ed) is obscured, so as not to recognize the victim and is shared by the website of an important national newspaper. There is often a double moral in telling these serious facts.
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On Facebook, the gap between Meloni’s page (2.3 million followers) and the official FDI page (438 thousand followers) is evident: are social networks the perfect mirror of the personalization of politics?
“Giorgia Meloni’s immediacy and stances are strategic for us, her contents animate the party’s communication. But it must be said that the others have also grown. Before 2018, FDI lived with only 9 MPs and the official channel was even more depressed. Now we have two substantial parliamentary groups, more politicians to be sent on TV and more content from these broadcasts that can be used on social networks, together with extracts from parliamentary works “.
How have social networks changed the way you dialogue with other parties?
“We had to organize ourselves, like everyone else. We now have a staff that monitors continuously what political opponents say and do on the various platforms. So that one of our politicians, if he were to remain offline for the time of a flight, upon landing not only receives information on current events but also on what has happened on social networks, in order to adequately answer the questions of reporters “.
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Will Giorgia Meloni focus on TikTok?
“On this social network he had a surge in visibility after the remix of one of his speeches that went viral. That video generated memes and dance. But we will not do specific content for TikTokwhich remains a playful platform: I don’t think polluting it with more serious videos is positive ”.
What about Twitch? Will you use it?
“We have some requests: we are evaluating them. The elections are very close, perhaps in the short term this social network cannot reach the mass that interests us. And then we want to think about the squaresto the territory: we do not want to leave out the real meeting places by spending hours on Twitch ”.
In your opinion, are social networks populist?
“I think not, there is really everything. There is also a lot of fake, but defining them populists no, I wouldn’t say it “.