By ASHLEY PARKER
AUGUST 4, 2015
WASHINGTON — Several days before the first Republican primary debate, members of Senator Rand Paul’s brain trust gathered in an upstairs conference room at their Capitol Hill headquarters for a social media war-room session.
Above two television monitors — one tuned to Fox News, the other to CNN — hung white posters listing the Twitter handles for all the debate participants, 10 hashtags that are likely to appear during the debate and possible debate keywords, along with photos of the three Fox News moderators.
Below, huddled over their laptops, Mr. Paul’s team discussed strategy. They would have at least two Twitter accounts — one devoted to “offense” and posting Mr. Paul’s best quotes, and another for “defense” to push back on any attacks from his rivals.
“So any time Rand speaks, someone should live-tweet it,” said Sergio Gor, a campaign spokesman. “Let’s amplify his messages every time we hit one of our points.”
The Twitter handles, hashtags and keywords that are likely to appear during the debate, next to photos of the three Fox News moderators.
STEPHEN CROWLEY / THE NEW YORK TIMES
They were also preparing content to magnify Mr. Paul’s onstage message online — as well as to attack his opponents on their vulnerabilities. They expected his flat-tax plan to come up, for instance, and had already prepared two videos and a graphic explaining it, which they could post to Facebook and Twitter as soon as Mr. Paul mentioned the plan.
“We should have something on any topic we think is going to come up,” said Doug Stafford, Mr. Paul’s top strategist. “What we’re trying to do is augment what we think he’s going to say. We want the graphic to be an extension of what he won’t have time to get out in 60 seconds.”
Though candidates and their teams of advisers and surrogates will continue to traipse into the crowded spin room after the debate on Thursday night, Mr. Paul’s aides are spending the week preparing for what savvy campaigns well know: that in the battle for public opinion, the presidential debates will be won or lost on social media, possibly before the 10 Republican hopefuls have even answered the last question.
“Campaigns no longer have the luxury of waiting until people get to the water cooler the next morning,” said Adam Sharp, the head of news, government and elections at Twitter.
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In candidates’ war rooms across the country, as their bosses hone their onstage zingers, aides are working behind the scenes to perfect their social media strategy — from writing Twitter posts with catchy hashtags to cutting ads ready to go up on Google search or Facebook.
“A good campaign will have a bevy of responses ready,” said Larry Huynh, a partner at Trilogy Interactive, a Democratic campaign consulting firm. “They’ll have a bunch of ads and messages preapproved.”
Social platforms are also rolling out new and improved options for campaigns to use, whether to try to influence news coverage or to reach voters with online messages and ads.
On Twitter, for instance, campaigns can reach specific voters through promoted tweets — basically Twitter’s version of ads — in a variety of ways. One option is for campaigns to embed a bit of code on their websites, making it possible to track visitors and then target those same users on Twitter during the debate.
“In the midst of the debate, they’re targeting people who they know have been to their donation page and asking them to donate money in real time, as candidates are talking about the issues they care about,” said Jenna Golden, head of political ad sales at Twitter.
Campaigns can also upload specific email lists and target just those potential supporters who care about, say, energy issues, or geographically target those who live in Iowa. Or they can upload lists of Twitter handles to serve with promoted tweets or regular Twitter messages.
On Monday, during a brainstorming session, Mr. Gor suggested just that: “Let’s come up with 20 of the top Twitter reporters,” he said. “Yeah, the top debate tweeters who we can target — boom, boom, boom.”
When it comes to rapid response, Mr. Gor added, many reporters “are more likely to see a tweet than a press release.”
Using a feature called “event targeting,” campaigns can choose to send promoted Twitter messages to users who are specifically engaging in a discussion about the debate, using a list of keywords and hashtags that Twitter updates continuously.
Google, which also owns YouTube, is advising campaigns to take advantage of its tool Google Trends, which allows campaigns to see what keywords and search terms are trending before, during and after the debate — and to run ad campaigns off those in-demand searches.
“One of the top searches the night of the debate will be, ‘When is the G.O.P. debate?’ and ‘What channel is the debate on tonight?’ ” said Lee Dunn, leader of the elections team at Google. “A smart candidate would be there with a search ad that says something like, ‘See James Madison debate tonight. He needs your support.’ ”
Campaigns can also run ads that will pop up when users are searching certain keywords, such as “Who won the debate?” (a popular query, Google says).
“When someone is searching for information about a candidate, they’re looking to have a conversation about that candidate,” Ms. Dunn said.
YouTube will also allow campaigns to offer additional commentary or nuance to their boss’s stance on various issues, she said.
Facebook, which is teaming up with Fox News for the debate on Thursday, will be on hand in Cleveland all week to help candidates film videos for their Facebook pages or host Facebook question-and-answer sessions.
“Facebook video is a great way for campaigns to take supporters and all the people who will be talking about the debate and provide them with a more intimate look at what’s going on,” said Don Seymour, a political outreach manager at Facebook who works with Republicans.
Facebook also allows campaigns to upload their voter files to the site, in order to target specific users with pitches tailored directly to them, and Mr. Seymour said campaigns could use Facebook ads to push out rapid-response messages or “activate existing supporters and attract new donors.”
Of course, campaigns are also relying on what has worked in the past. Mr. Paul, for instance, generated considerable social-media buzz — not to mention donations — using the #StandWithRand hashtag during his recent filibuster over government surveillance programs. His team hopes to attach that same hashtag to many debate-night Twitter messages.
“We have a great brand built on our hashtag,” said Joe Kildea, the campaign’s rapid-response director. “There’s no reason to change our hashtag.”
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