The Campaign Corner series looks to give three tips about commonly asked campaign issues. Do get in touch if you have any questions you would like to suggest.
Today’s Campaign Corner question: I’m standing in May and not sure what matters most – my website, having a blog or both?
Ignore most of the advice people give you: You’ll find lots of people who have very strong views about the pros or cons of political blogging despite having very little knowledge on which to base them. To sort the bad advice from the good, a handy guide is simply to ask people how many different websites / blogs they have knowledge of and on which they are basing their own conclusions. Very firmly held advice based on one experience a few years back, for example, tells you much about their self-assurance and attitude toward evidence; it tells you very little about the subject at hand.- Blogs are to websites as newspapers are to books. Blogs are best suited for regular updates, often briefer stories and building an audience which expects a new edition most days. Websites generally work better for more detailed, less time-sensitive and more timeless information. Think which will suit you best.
- Blogs require a more personal tone of voice. Blogs require a regular, personal contribution from someone who can write well in a personal tone of voice, and so are not the best answer for everyone. A less personal tone may not work as well in theory, but a less personal tone done well is far better in practice than a personal tone done badly.
Got any other tips? Please do share them in the comment thread below.
Want to know more about local campaigning? Campaigning In Your Community by myself and Shaun Roberts should be right up your street. It’s available for only £4 from ALDC and you can read an extract for free here.
Previous Campaign Corners have included:
- How do we get more leaflet deliverers?
- What to do on the doorstep
- How to make Focus leaflets looks better
You can read them all here.
* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.
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4 Comments
Two points – neither based on experience of party political blogging, but on websites and vlogs in the worlds of art and of local government. One: blog and website can reinforce one another. You can have links, of course, and a subject can be addressed briefly on the blog with reference to a fuller treatment on the website, or indeed, satirically on the blog with reference to a serious, literal treatment on the website. Two: because blogs require frequent short postings and it is not so easy (on the blog providers I’ve seen) to provide a range of clickable options, it’s easy to slip into a stereotyped style which regular visitors may find too predictable. Maintaining a consistent voice is one thing, but becoming easy to parody is another (see, in my blog http://sibathehat.blogspot.com, the Chief Executive’s blog “Ed’s Job” in the Odanglesex Chronicles series. This draws on an actual blog which always starts with some cosy family anecdote or jolly congratulations and manages to find a connection to some organisational message to the troops.
Good points both Simon. The worst example of blog post I can remember was Tony Blair’s (presumably ghost-written) campaign blog in one of his elections which read more like a Rory Bremner caricature than the real thing as he got terribly excited travelling in a high speed lift.
I think that the article from Mark misses the point totally. The question isnt one of whether a blog or a website is best the question is what is the purpose of either?
If you are fighting a local election then your time is limited and prescious. A website can be written up front with the main themes of your campaign, local issues and details of your year round campaigning properly documented. It affords you the luxury of being able to set out detail, reference your oppinions and have a really well prepared, well worded and effective campaign tool available for your prospective electorate to read in their own time.
A blog is something that you need to update regularly or it looks like you are not doing much. Mark compares it to a newspaper, actually the well constructed blog is more like an online 24/7 focus newsletter. With a good blogging package such as wordpress (used by ALDC in their mycouncillor cluster of blogsites and available for ALDC members to use) then you can sit down and prepare several days worth of blogs in one sitting, planning your campaign in advance like this makes the whole thing more manageable.
The most important thing to remember though is that be it a blog, a webiste or a hybrid, an online presence is only a good means of communication if your target audience know it exists. You need to get the URL out there on every letter, every leaflet, every email and every poster. You need to find the local online sites that local people are interested in, and make sure you comment there with a direct link to your site.
Its no good doing the best blog in the world if the only person reading it is the person preparing the best of the blogs for LD Voice.
Why not both?
A website can be created with static pages allowing “more detailed, less time-sensitive and more timeless information” but this does not preclude also having a blog as part of that site.
Yes, blogging takes more time and effort, but that also demonstrates a commitment to the community and to transparency in what you are doing/saying/thinking.
I also think that blogs develop over time to show your history of fighting for certain issues. OK. So you might not win this election, but keep your blog going until you stand for the next one and the history of what you have written in the past will stand you in good stead – or not, as the case may be!
Take a look at what your competition is doing. Do they have a blog? If so, what will people think of the professionalism of your campaign if you don’t?