How Lula tries to enter the social media game

Aged 76 and with more than four decades of political life under his belt, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has had to reinvent his communication strategy to adapt to the language of social media. It hasn’t been an easy task — he doesn’t even use a cell phone.

Unlike other politicians who manage to make social media a core part of their political persona, Lula is more comfortable speaking to large crowds and pressing flesh. 

Adding to Lula’s social media struggles is how resistant to change his Workers’ Party is. After successfully winning four straight presidential elections between 2002 and 2014, the party has convinced itself that its way of campaigning is the right way — and that it doesn’t really need much updating.

The Brazilian Report spoke to people who have managed the Workers’ Party’s social media channels during this year’s campaign. These sources were also in charge during the 2018 election, when the party’s candidate — former São Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad — was defeated by President Jair Bolsonaro.

They claim that “there is no comparison” between this presidential campaign and the previous one.

Back in 2018, Lula was serving a prison sentence for corruption (which was later annulled). “It was tense. You couldn’t joke, be relaxed. Now the atmosphere is festive,” says one of the individuals responsible for running the former president’s social media profiles, in reference to Lula’s wide lead against Mr. Bolsonaro in all major polls.

The failures in the Workers’ Party’s online communication strategy became evident during Mr. Haddad’s campaign. The party bet on a confusing association between the candidate and Lula (the motto was “Haddad is Lula, Lula is Haddad”) and on sticking with left-wing intellectualized discourses.

One week before the 2018 first round vote, rapper Mano Brown put his finger on the problem while giving a speech alongside Mr. Haddad. “Communication is the soul. If you can’t speak the people’s language, you will lose. Talking well about the Workers’ Party to Workers’ Party fans is easy. There’s a crowd that needs to be conquered, or we’re going to fall over the edge,” the rapper predicted.

Mano Brown’s speech four years ago is echoed in a Twitter thread last week by André Janones, a federal congressman who recently dropped out of the presidential race to back Lula. Both men say that the Workers’ Party has to leave intellectual spheres and go back to speaking in the everyday language of the person on the street. 

“Either the left sits on the factory floor to talk to the workers, or it’s already...