President Hosni Mubarak (left) and son Gamal at the World Economic Forum this year. Picture courtesy the World Economic Forum.

He’s widely tipped to be the next President of Egypt.  He’s the policy chief in the ruling National Democratic Party (the NDP). And now he’s talking to Egyptians directly through the social web.

Today Gamal Mubarak, son of incumbent President Hosni Mubarak, will address questions posted on Facebook through a live video webcast.

It’s all part of an effort to build Mubarak junior’s credibility and support base, ahead of any future tussle for the presidency.

It may sound new, but the spectacle fits well within a long standing communications drive from within the NDP.

The Egyptian regime has long learnt to be media savvy as part of an effort to present itself as modern, democratic and open.

Back in the presidential elections of 2005, Hosni Mubarak’s communications were slick and ubiquitous.

Brand Mubarak was built as stable, formidable, progressive and authentic. His slogan was ‘Leadership … and the passage to the future.’

Linking his image and party to the color green and the crescent – both symbols of Islam – built his brand as authentic. He was presented as a friendly father businessman figure.

Allied to this was a mammoth communications campaign that presented the party as open and responsive.

A reporter covering the campaign in 2005, Vivian Salama, wrote:

Gone are the days, the party proclaimed, where politicians dodge questions, act aloof and brush off the need for responses. The scheme was simple—a journalist who needed a quote, a response, or any information concerning the NDP would get all he/she needed with a simple phone call.

Inside the campaign, media professionals were hired to grow web and mobile outreach right up to election day.

Usama Najeeb was one of them.  He described how the campaign was ‘was carefully planned and built on a scientific basis’.  The NDP went to great lenghts to monitor media and respond through more than one channel.

Fast forward four years and Gamal Mubarak is adopting a similar approach.

His website is called ‘Sharek’ (partcipate) to suggest that his politics are participatory and responsive to the needs of Egyptians.

He’s using social media like YouTube, Flickr and Facebook to interact with an increasingly important middle class that has jumped on new social networking opportunities online.

To some extent this reflects a need to compete with opposition groups – notably the Muslim Brotherhood – who have similarly adopted new media techniques to communicating their agenda.

But will his politics be any different under the spotlight of social media?

This is a big test.  Blogs and networking tools have dramatically increased the potential for new communities of thought to emerge online.  They have given opportunities for activists to fine-tune their communication techniques and for many other web users to engage in participatory debate.

Yet the policies of Hosni Mubarak’s regime since 2005 do not suggest that new media have had the impact many assumed they would.

If there was ever a good opportunity to test the well trodden argument about the potential for social media to breathe new life into the participatory politics of developing countries, it is here.

Join the webcast at http://www.sharek.eg/ from 7pm local time tonight.