By Michael Alan Hamlin

I have some ideas about online visibility and political campaigning in the Philippines, but decided to ask one of the experts in the trenches to share his views. Bon Moya, a member of Senator Mar Roxas’ New Media team and president of a web-based software developer, obliged. Here’s his perspective:

The great unwashed netizens.
Let’s begin with what we think we know. At least one in every four Filipinos are Internet users. Even if you take out those ineligible to vote, that’s still a lot of voters. About one million have broadband, with the number rapidly climbing. The rest access the Net via the office or Internet cafes. So the first thing we deduce is that Internet users are not just from the ABC social classes. Experts say that about 65% of Pinoy Netizens are from the DE classes. If you are not convinced how economically agnostic our Netizens are, check the grammar in Facebook updates.

STOP SHOUTING!
Despite the mind-boggling audience size and highly efficient cost, Web 2.0 is not a platform for broadcasting. It’s “masscom” but not “broadcom.” In traditional media, there is a handful of content generators serving a large audience. In new media, each individual behaves both as a consumer and a distributor of content. Each selectively redistributes content almost instantaneously.

Given this dynamic, the candidate who blasts a generic message loudly and broadly can be trumped by one who whispers the most relevant, compelling content to a network that takes the message and redistributes it. The key is not to inform but to involve. Because of its massive micro-networked nature, in the Net, the relevant whisper can become a scream very quickly, or may slowly crescendo over time.

VERY Up Close and Personal.
You see this line here? This is MY space. Enter only if invited. Consider the following Internet concepts: personal email address; unique User ID; secret passwords; privacy policies; SPAM; customized template; avatar. The very public Web is a very private space.

It may be difficult to imagine but Netizens are as egocentric as the politicians who demand their attention. They want to be heard more than they want to hear. So it will be a great waste of resources to provide netizens with press releases. You’ll get better traction and attention by just posting gossip… or by baring truly personal and intimate bits of your life that others are eager to share.

Consider what Mar Roxas did during his honeymoon. He tweeted about his experience and gave the public a glimpse of a part of him that was not given them before. The crucial thing is not the candidate’s ability to deliver the message to a huge audience but for the huge audience to adopt the candidate and his message.

Present but no presence.
It’s significant to note that ALL national candidates running this 2010 have an official web site. Politicians seem to think that COMELEC checks the net to determine serious vs. nuisance candidates. Likely, most of them have poor site traffic with bounce rates above 60%. At this rate, candidates are better off spending their money on pocket calendars.

If you don’t grab visitors in the first five seconds you lose them, probably for good. Hard to beat addictive massive multiplayer games, incredible videos on YouTube and the need to serve food in Café World (in Facebook). Who would want to pay P20/ hour for Internet time to see a politician’s face and read self-serving praise releases?

The elegant truth is that you don’t have to have an official site to be prominent in the Net. What you need is for your content to be on as many sites as possible. Bringing people to your site is expensive and ineffective), so bring your content to the people.

Obama, my foot!
The spiel starts with this, “In the US, Barack Obama revolutionized US elections by effectively harnessing the Internet…” Keep your wallet closed. Accept this premise only if you agree that American democracy is the same as Philippine democracy.

Like many things, Filipinos have adopted something foreign—democracy—and made it their own. Think Jeepney.

Global Parlor.
We use the Net to stay in touch and updated. We also use it rather effectively, and viciously, to spread gossip. With many of us communicating with individuals who are abroad, we have expanded our chit-chat sessions and broken down physical boundaries using the Net. But will it work for the 2010 campaign? Only if you whisper something worth distributing.

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