Partisan consultants: Social Media Managers and the digital reconfiguration of party leadership in Italy

The digitalisation of political communication has profoundly transformed party organisations, yet the actors responsible for managing parties’ digital presence remain understudied. This article investigates the role of Social Media Managers (SMMs) in the reconfiguration of party leadership and organisational boundaries within Italian politics. Building on the literature on party digitalisation and professionalisation, the article explores whether SMMs function as external consultants or hybrid intermediaries positioned between leaders, organisations and digital audiences. The empirical analysis draws on 13 semi-structured interviews conducted between 2024 and 2026 with digital consultants working for Italy’s five major political parties and leaders. The findings show that the professionalisation of digital communication has produced a paradoxical organisational outcome. While the incorporation of communication professionals increases the functional porosity of parties – through interactions with external consultants, platforms, and online publics – it simultaneously reinforces the strategic centralisation of communication around party leaders and partisan cores. Moreover, despite widespread rhetoric about data-driven campaigning, digital communication remains predominantly issue-driven, with metrics used mainly to validate pre-existing political strategies. Finally, the professionalisation of social media management transforms online participation into a largely symbolic resource for leadership legitimation, reconfiguring digital communities as managed audiences rather than autonomous arenas of political agency.