What President Zelensky is teaching us about the art of war in a social media age.

The actor turned President gives us a masterclass in waging war in the age of social media. Trump leveraged Twitter, Ronald Reagan used his acting charms on television audiences, and anchor Walter Kronkite brought the Vietnam war into the homes of Americans. Today I look at the Twitter accounts of the two main protagonists in the war being waged over Ukraine by Russian forces. What can we learn and why is PR the ultimate weapon of both war and business.

@ZelenskyyUa

@KremlinRussia_E

I reference this excellent article by the BBC on the coverage of the war in Russia. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60571737

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Transcript

0:41

Hello. Welcome to this episode of the unnoticed show. Coming to you from sunny Somerset here in the Southwest of England. My name is Jim James. And each show I try and pick up. Tools and tips for entrepreneurs to get noticed, but I think. Probably like most people. I'm finding it very hard to focus right now, the situation in Ukraine. Is beyond belief. And so I wanted to look at. Aspects of the Ukraine. Russia conflict that might still be relevant for the show. But to really move away from a, a PR talk today. So I am going to look at some of the ways that Zelensky has been using social media and how this war is the first war to be held on social media. So welcome to the show. This. Time. I think for all of us is a time of reflection. And if not a stunned. Questioning. And it must also be a time when we look at the. Kind of all Wellington use of information and misinformation. First of all, though, what I'm going to look at is the use of Twitter by Zelensky. And the use of infographics. And then we're going to look at really how public relations is where the true battlefield lies. Of all the marketing disciplines, advertising events, direct mail websites. What we're seeing is during war time. Public relations is the number one weapon. The both sides are using in fact, Not just both sides, all sides, everybody. Governments. NGOs. Uh, refugees. Everybody is in information, sharing overload. Let's just start. First of all, looking at the Twitter wars now. As we learned from Donald Trump. Twitter can be a direct to end reader, viewer. Tool that bypass is traditional media. Now Zelensky. Uh, Zola door. Uh, the president Selenski has his own Twitter account. And I was checking that actually from the very beginning of, um, Okay. Now, first of all, let's look at the Twitter wars now. Zelensky president Zelensky. Has his own Twitter, which is Zelensky Y capital U lowercase, a. And what I did was I, I started looking at his account. On the 26th of February and he had. 2.3 million followers. And that was at 4 42 in the afternoon. Now by 1122 in the evening, he had 2.8 million followers. And by 10 o'clock the next morning he had 3.2 million people. So over a period of not even 24 hours. He picked up 900,000 followers. Later that day by the 27th of February. At 2216, he was at 3.6 million. And on the 1st of March. In the morning at 6 53, he was at 4.1 million. On the 1st of March by eight o'clock. He was at 4.3 million. And the 2nd of March, when I'm reading this out to you now. 4.4 million. So within a matter of days, Zelensky has picked up. 2 million followers around the world. If we want to just compare that to the president of Russia. Who had 1.3 million. At the same date, the 26th, when I started track it. And today, which is now the fourth. He has. Sorry. And today, which is the second. He now has 1.5 million followers. He just gained 2 million in the same period of time. 200,000. And the president of Russia. Today at. Eight o'clock in the evening. On the 2nd of March has 1.5 million followers and he had 1.3 million. When I started this on the 26th of February. Zelensky has been the right man for the job when it comes to social media warfare. As we know he was possibly ridiculed for his background as an actor. But. What we're learning, of course, in this war is that the theater of war is the mobile phone. Zelensky. Has been posting. Eight to nine posts a day from his account. In one language or about 16. Posts. In a bilingual. So. He is posting about. W one an hour during daylight hours. And he's posting that in both English and in Ukrainian. Now what's interesting is as well, is that if we take, for example, his post just yesterday about talking with Boris Johnson. He had 2,640 comments, 10,000 reposts and 79,000 likes. In fact, When you watch Zelensky is Twitter. It's like nothing else. It actually is like a ticket tape feed. That is how quickly the. Likes and the retweets. And the comments are going up. Now for. President of Russia, Putin, who by the way, does have his own English language, Twitter. But it has a negligible number of followers. So I've taken the president of Russia official. Which is only written in English by the way. And when he posted. Today about his talks with cut Kazak. Isaac Stan. Uh, the president there, he had 1,414 comments. 233 shares in 1,600 likes. He's posting for post today. And two yesterday. So. The amount of content. The Zelensky. And his ministry for foreign affairs, which also has a bilingual account. And almost every member of parliament. Uh, in English and in Ukrainian. And of course some are posting in Russian as well. They are using Twitter. In a phenomenal way. As we know they're also using, uh, Facebook. But I'm focused on Twitter because. This is with hashtags. How the news is being tracked. Uh, but also it then sits alongside. It could be shared very easily next to the official news channels of CNN. The BBC CGT N. And all the major international players. So Twitter is proving to be for Zelensky. A vital part of his arsenal when it comes to communication. I posted also this week. Some. Infographics that they have created. They've created infographics to show. Their successes on the battlefield. And I thought this is also very interesting to create. In a bright orange. Uh, in an Instagram size, which is then seen on Twitter, but can be used on all manner of places. Losses of the Russian occupying forces in English. This is, um, for example, Preliminary preliminary numbers as of the Russian. Invasion continues. It says, and it'll icons. To show 4,300 personnel killed overfill. Over 200 person. As prisoners of war 46 aircraft with a nice picture. Of an aircraft, 26 helicopters, 146 tanks. 60 systems. Uh, those are mobile tanks by the way, not for the bathroom and two drones and it carries on. And then has hashtag. Russian invaded Ukraine and Ukraine under attack and stop rushing aggression. They then did the same infographic. And the same day, but in Russia, Um, so. They are using social media really cleverly. And then they've had, for example, and what looks to be done on Canva. A Dmitri co-labor. The ministry for foreign affairs. In a very delicately done infographic saying we also demand to impose full oil and gas embargo in Russia. These oil and gas now also contain Ukrainian blood. And uses the same hashtags and it's a picture of him in black and white. Laid out to the right. And the orange. Uh, background for the text with a white background for the whole picture. Interestingly, they haven't used the Ukrainian colors. Of blue and yellow. But what we're seeing is really a. Uh, concerted effort. By the Ukrainians. Do you social media? And there was one young woman interviewed on the BBC. Who were, uh, interviewed about why she hadn't left. And she said, actually, well, we, we could have done. Uh, but then when we looked at the internet, And we look to what the government needed. They needed people to manage the information wars. And so she and her friends. Decided to stay back. And to communicate with the outside world by creating infographics. Tweets. Blog posts, videos, infographics. And of course, As we've seen from Zelensky the famous walking down the street and filming himself in front of the parliament house there. So. They are. As a generation in their forties, as leaders and younger. And they're using social media. In a phenomenally powerful way. All of this, of course isn't necessarily. Winning the war for them, but it is. Winning the conscience war. And one of the things I saw that they had done, which is very clever was that they have launched a website. And on that website, they have a phone number for you cranium. Um, Captured Russian soldiers. Um, To be contacted from families in Russia. So they put phone numbers. For the Russians. Two foot to call in order to find out if the Russian soldiers have been captured or killed in the Ukraine. So they are using all the different devices. Very, very cleverly indeed. Now. Obviously, this is helping them in some respects, but then when we look at. What's happening in Russia. There was an interesting post today on the BBC. Talking about monitoring the Russian. Television. So the war on Russian TV, it says in article, by Simona Clover and Sandra vet SCO. Um, on today, the 2nd of March. Is that the people in Russia are getting a different kind of a news. And of course, This is the heart of George Orwell's 1984. Doublespeak. Where we have the juxtaposition of one noun next to another to make it sound sensible. So there couldn't be many better illustrations of this. Then the idea, for example, espoused on here, where they are saying that. For example. Footage continues to be circulated on the internet, which cannot be described as anything. But fake and they described it as unsophisticated virtual manipulations. And they're showing a tank, for example. Which appears on social media to be a Russian tank. That is in the Ukrainian conflict. And they are saying it's been doctored and actually it's from the Dom that 2014. We also have. Here. The idea, which is again, Scarily fanciful, but for many people, this is their truth. They are saying that the Ukrainian nationalists. Uh, using civilians as a human shield, deliberately positioning strike systems in residential areas and stepping up the shelling of cities in Donbass. So they're accusing the Ukrainians. Of bombing. Civilians in the Donbass region in the east. And they are also saying that the tactics of the nationalists who use children to shield themselves have not changed. Since the second world war says the presenter on Rossiya 24. It continues. It says they behave like fascists. In the very sense of this word, neo-Nazis put their hardware. Not just next to residential houses. But where children take shelter in. Basements. So. It carries on like this. Across all of these. Uh, mediums. Across the day. And my perhaps favorite most worrying is on Rossier one. And it says to strike Kharkiv. In fact, what they're saying is that the Ukrainians are striking Kharkiv themselves. It says to strike Kharkiv and say that it was Russia. You crane is hitting its own and lying. To the west. But is it possible to deceive the people? It asks. So it says here that the main objective in Ukraine, as far as Russia is concerned, is the defensive Russia against the threat from the west. Which is using the Ukrainian people and it's standoff with Moscow. To counter what it describes is fake news and rumors. Which are circulating. She announces the Russian government is launching a new website where only true information will be published. I'll put a link to this in the show. Public relations. We're getting fed the news that we want to be fed. And it's more of the news that we've already seen. And Twitter is the same. All of the social media channels send us. Something comparable to what we're already watching. When we're doing our public relations. In wartime. We can see the polarization and of course the disinformation that's taking place. And I'm looking forward to the fact martyr report, which is coming out, which has got some analysis. On the Ukraine, Russia. Coverage from social media. And we're all familiar now with the bots as well. But what we're seeing of course is disinformation is driving people apart. What role can we all play? Plainly, we have to fact check what we are. Sending. Another thing that we can do. For example, if we're interested to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, I personally have. Put a Ukraine flag for my LinkedIn account. And I have that now also stand by Ukraine as my banner for my Twitter. So we can do that in small ways. And we can also help to amplify. Those posts that we know to be true. And to share those with our own networks to get more people. Onboard with what is actually happening. There can't be many people now. Who don't know what's happening. Part of what I'm trying to do is that also to share what the Russians are also seeing, because it's only by understanding what they're seeing that will understand their. Their motivation and their potential. Behavior in and around the actions of the Western forces and the Western media. As we plan our own PR as you plan your own PR for your businesses. If we can even introduce that. One of the lessons of this Ukraine, Russia crisis is obviously the use of social media, taking the war to the home and into your hand. Everybody is an actor. No one now. Can be left out. But also the, what we see as the truth. Isn't what other people see as the truth. Our own team make 100% believe in what we're doing. But our customers and our partners may not. Let's pray that the understanding of misunderstanding that you have with your audiences doesn't lead to this kind of con is that we're experiencing here. I'm personally finding, staying motivated. Through this. War. To be a challenge in terms of talking about day to day. I'm asking myself, how can I help? And perhaps with this podcast, just highlighting maybe a few places where you can find out more about the war, but also. To fact check. And to hear what other people are thinking about the war. So that we don't fall into the same myopia as the Russians, and we keep an open mind and an open heart. And open arms for all those people that are fleeing the conflict. With that. I thank you for listening to this episode of the unnoticed entrepreneur. My name is Jim James. Goodnight, stay safe and God bless.