Poliblog Perspective

This is the second in my series of articles about starting a Political Blog. My first article introduced a parallel that exists between political blogging and traditional political campaigning .

This post extends the comparison between developing a blog and running for political office, and highlights some of the similarities and differences.

The Basics

Blogs vs Leaflets: The back room no longer exists

A blog is a communication tool - just like the leaflet or the brochure that you distribute to your target audience.

However, now the previously separate processes of publication, distribution and follow-up conversation are all rolled together, and there is less cost involved.

Further, all these processes are now done in public, and leave an audit trail that can be read by anyone who takes an interest. The latter group will - inevitably - include your opponents at the next election.

Listen First

Spend some time reading a number of blogs - several months is not too long.

Engage in the conversation. Find some friends and allies in similar situations or with similar ideas, who can show you the ropes. And find your opponents, and learn when to argue with them and when to work with them.

In other words - it is just like politics.

Define your objectives

Ask the same questions that you do when you start an election campaign:

• Who am I/are we representing - on whose behalf is this blog published?
• Who do I need to convince?
• What do they need to be persuaded of to support me/us?
• What needs to be done to achieve that?

Each of these questions can be asked of the use of a blog, and applied to the online audience - just as they can of any other campaign and community.

Start early, and work long term

If you want to win a seat, whether in Parliament or in your Local Council, you need to be known locally. Preferably, you need to be known (or come to be known) as a local. Candidates are best appointed as far in advance as possible, which gives a period of several years to work in the community building support. The same principles apply to a political blog.

Build support over time

When you start a blog, your visitors will largely come via three routes: your fellow bloggers, search engines such as Google, and links from relevant websites.
It will take up to 6-12 months of consistent work to gain credibility with your fellow bloggers - and to gain credibility with the right fellow bloggers. Until that point, they will link to you and send you visitors based purely on trust, or on the relevance of individual articles.

In the UK, “search engines” means Google; it is the dictator of the Internet in this country with an 80% share of the UK search market. Google often waits as long as 6-9 months before placing you high enough in search results to send you many visitors.

Relevant websites may be major sites in your niche, directories, your local council or even the BBC Regional website. You can approach these to ask for a listing, and such links will help promote your blog with other bloggers and search engines.

Wrapping Up

In my third article tomorrow, I will be describing some of the principles and values that you need to work with when writing a blog - otherwise you can be embarrassed very easily.

Tags: political blogging, iain dale guide to political blogging, politics, matt wardman[tags]political blogging, iain dale guide to political blogging, politics, matt wardman[/tags]

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