# Communications Manager

The Communications (Comms) Manager is the **enhanced capability in Social Watch for managing multiple persona accounts when impersonating**. View everything that happens (what AI sends, what comes in, what gets published) from one channel. 

Our impersonation feature allows players with the right permissions to role-play as various stakeholders but they do this from within each channel - email, twitter etc. With the Comms Manager, the role-player's job is made easier by bringing together multiple channels into a single channel across one column per stakeholder.

AI can be used to generate persona content, grounded in their cognitive model and beliefs. This is particularly helpful in reducing the knowledge required of the human role-player and raises the realism of the exercise.

<table><thead><tr><th width="345.77777099609375">Benefit</th><th>Feature</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Easier to manage multiple stakeholders</td><td><p>Write and schedule content across multiple stakeholders and channels.</p><p></p><p>See activity across multiple channels and stakeholders<br></p><p>Available for:</p><ul><li>MicroBlog (X/Twitter)</li><li>GoSocial (Facebook)</li><li>InstaMedia (Instagram)</li><li>Telegraph (Telegram)</li><li>Website/News (Browser)</li><li>Forum (Reddit)</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table>

### When to use

Use the Comms Manager when managing multiple roleplaying personas in an exercise, particularly when there's one dedicated role-player. The Comms Manager is especially useful in scenarios where multiple media personas are involved, allowing a single EXCON member to monitor and engage with all persona communications.

#### Example

In a crisis communications exercise, three media personas are handling different social media content. Instead of assigning a role-player to each, **an EXCON member uses the Comms Manager to monitor and respond to all interactions from a single channel (Social Watch), with AI handling routine responses and the human stepping in for critical interactions**.

### Behavioural Simulation Engine (Conducttr's 4Rs Model)

The 4Rs model powers persona decision-making in the Comms Manager:

* Is the request **RELEVANT**?
* Does it **RESONATE**?
* How should I **REACT**?
* What's my **RESPONSE**?

This three-stage pipeline guides how personas process requests, ensuring their responses stay true to their cognitive model and in-character persona.

## :zap:Designing

Before running the Comms Manager in Social Watch, there's a few things the designer must consider and configure:

* activate the social watch channel
* allow or deny use of AI auto-responses (also requires personas to have full cognitive model)
* persona permissions and player positions need to be aligned for the human players to gain access to the persona

#### Activate Social Watch

Ensure you activate Social Watch in the Editor under `Configuration` > `Channels`:

<figure><img src="/files/p3ZwQ0quwNVWOKIa8AMs" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Under the settings for Social Watch, ensure that *Autonomous Personas (Auto)* is toggled on.

<figure><img src="/files/xiBW4giLraG9g8Ccv4j4" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

#### AI

To get the most out of AI generated responses, two things must be in place before the exercise runs:

1. The scenario description must be completed in the Editor (this populates the exercise context in the AI settings). You can find this under `Configuration` > `Exercise Setup` :

<figure><img src="/files/q4Tt0JGI6KlNmW9D5Jav" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

1. Each persona must have their cognitive model fully built out. You can find this under `Personas` > `Core` :

<figure><img src="/files/R2uq7pA1xMGkV4Ikx0Zz" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="info" %}
To find out more about persona attributes, visit the page below:
{% endhint %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/wRYkXCAB5l7N3Qxg2pTW" %}
[Working with personas](/feature-documentation/designing-and-running/personas/working-with-personas.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

#### Positions

Personas also need to be assigned to positions and those positions assigned to players. Without this, impersonation options won't appear.&#x20;

1. Set up positions up under `Configuration` > `Positions`:

<figure><img src="/files/T5PF9gxrHFEZ41jp5uZK" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

2. Assign position to personas:

<figure><img src="/files/BoCUdy9ysFYFuFQoWjHk" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

3. Assign positions to players:

* From the Teams table:

<figure><img src="/files/WH5Oq9ZmFkW3YLedXgmt" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

* Or from the Facilitator Dashboard:

<figure><img src="/files/aLDVSXLwHtbCwrip91AE" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

#### Social Graph

Social Graph (following relationships between personas) affects message visibility, so this needs to be set up correctly for inbound messages to show in the impersonation drop-down.

***

## Running

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

#### Get started

When you first open Social Watch in an exercise you'll be met with this *Get Started* window:

<figure><img src="/files/cYkFNJmky3o7zv8rXFHU" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Impersonate persona

To use the Comms Manager in Social Watch, you'll want to select `Impersonate Persona`:

<figure><img src="/files/kbqtVlTq3flfboNZjl3v" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

*Select Sender* from a drop-down list (this is all the personas you have available to you via the preconfigured positions).&#x20;

There are two different ways to run the Comms Manager.&#x20;

1. **Impersonation (manual)**: using the Comms Manager as a bird's eye view of the all impersonating personas, but manually replying to players throughout the exercise
2. **Auto respond**: Allowing AI to automatically respond to player messages. To enable, click the checkbox as shown in the screenshot above
   {% endstep %}
   {% endstepper %}

### 1. Impersonation

To add another impersonation column, click `+ Add column`:&#x20;

<figure><img src="/files/U8Fd9E4G3RasvISf9ckt" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

As injects come through, you'll be able to see every message the selected personas receive throughout the exercise:&#x20;

<figure><img src="/files/Q1JLQABG4bj4hBOF552U" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Any player messages sent to roleplaying personas will be highlighted with a green *Player* tag and a border:

<figure><img src="/files/0Qa7ZtgnJUrc4cvgxlJH" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Click `Reply` to send a response from the persona straight from Social Watch. This will open the Composer. Here you can:

* Reply manually by typing in the body
* Utilise AI to generate responses live (you'll need to describe the event/context)

<figure><img src="/files/jeTIfibB5eHdP0qQFfqp" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="success" %}
In the Email Composer, select any available players/personas from the *To* and *CC* drop-downs.
{% endhint %}

### 2. Auto-response

{% hint style="info" %}
Auto-response is available for microblog (Twitter) and Email at this time (May 2026)
{% endhint %}

Auto-response allows personas with cognitive models (configured in the Editor) to automatically respond to incoming messages.

Add an auto column by clicking `+ Add column` , and in the open window check the *Auto respond* box:

<figure><img src="/files/2xZNqOwuFIDsPm1qu3ZN" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="warning" %}
You can only select one channel per persona per column when using Auto-response.
{% endhint %}

When content (in this case an email) is sent to the persona, it will automatically respond based on its cognitive model (beliefs and goals predominantly).&#x20;

<figure><img src="/files/uyhfXWu5nCV0FhGTixRg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Settings/Composer

While running the Comms Manager there are a few settings you can access during the exercise under *Settings* and *Composer*.

#### Exercise context

Navigate to the cog icon:

<figure><img src="/files/pb40NmL75fnJ15K9YfkJ" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

You can alter the exercise context (which is the same as the exercise setup in the Editor under `Configuration` > `Exercise setup`) during the exercise if necessary by selecting `+ New context`:

<figure><img src="/files/rHRq9ubYnFkzN0VkpDAY" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

#### MIND

{% hint style="info" %}
Use FACTS for the persona to add knowledge to use in auto-responses. For example shipping routes, environmental protection rules, road closures. All these facts will be used to better respond automatically.
{% endhint %}

Navigate to the :pencil2: pencil icon for the *Composer* > :book: `Mind`:

<figure><img src="/files/sJHPKaCSQZiIDeWaZlCk" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Here you'll be able to see *Relationship*, *Memory summary*, *MIND state*, and *FACTS*.

The *MIND state* is the persona's current emotional stat&#x65;*.* In the above example, Richard Drummond is feeling vigilant, which will impact how the persona responds to emails. You can click `History` to view all exercise MIND states for that persona.

#### Relationships

Click `Relationships` to view the relationship history between personas:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/nx3DUdbbev9pkBbV03eC" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

While your exercise is running, the Comms Manager will interpret the relationship between players and personas by analysing their interactions with each other (emails and tweets). This provides further context for the AI when generating auto responses.

In this example, (from Richard Drummond's perspective) interactions between him and Michael Smith are supportive, but demanding. This shapes how this particular persona will auto respond.

#### FACTS

In this area you can add concrete facts/events to the persona's knowledge base to further inform the AI when generating auto responses.&#x20;

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/xC84s6dRtztypMJJPDu9" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>


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