WASHINGTON — Several days before the first Republican primary debate, members of Senator Rand Paul’s brain trust gathered in an upstairs conference room at their Capitol Hill headquarters for a social media war-room session.

Above two television monitors — one tuned to Fox News, the other to CNN — hung white posters listing the Twitter handles for all the debate participants, 10 hashtags that are likely to appear during the debate and possible debate keywords, along with photos of the three Fox News moderators.

Below, huddled over their laptops, Mr. Paul’s team discussed strategy. They would have at least two Twitter accounts — one devoted to “offense” and posting Mr. Paul’s best quotes, and another for “defense” to push back on any attacks from his rivals.

“So any time Rand speaks, someone should live-tweet it,” said Sergio Gor, a campaign spokesman. “Let’s amplify his messages every time we hit one of our points.”