Poliblog Perspective

Iain Dale posted last weekend that the Conservative Party were planning to launch a big new group blog.

This post is the first of several reflecting on blog strategy for political parties, using the new Conservative project as a thought experiment. In this first article I look at the pros and cons of launching a single group blog, and whether a more diverse strategy may be a better option as a way of encouraging multiple conversation points between the Conservatives and the public.

Is a Single Blog the right approach?

Iain comments:

The blog, as yet unnamed, will have blogposts from people across the party, from Shadow Cabinet, to candidates, CF members and ordinary activists, as well as guest blogs from non party members. The intention is for there to be 5-10 blogposts a day to make it as dynamic as possible. It won’t be full of boring party press releases but instead they want it to have colour, be anecdotal as well as a forum to discuss policy. Anyone can leave comments, and I am told there will “no Stalinist approach to moderation”.

My first thought is to ask whether this is actually too cautious. Will five to ten posts a day on one site be sufficient to communicate everything that needs to be put across? It may even result in another highly centralised, but informal, channel - rather than one that will give a wide range of voices engaging in conversation on a wide range of topics. If so, it won’t be centralised because of any “Stalinist” control - it will simply be that space on the site will be a scarce and precious resource and the Centre will inevitably win the competition for access.

Further, if it does take off, it could have the “Political Betting problem” - also as experienced by Nick Robinson now; up to 500 comments on a post may look like a sign of success, but it can be daunting to those on the fringe. And surely those on (or beyond) the fringe are precisely one constituency who need to be targeted via the informality of blogs - they are people who have proved to be beyond traditional “media-managed” political communication.

So, I can see at least two possible problems with this “single point” approach:

1 - The material, coverage and conversation may be limited in volume and number of contributors.
2 - A non-committed audience may be overwhelmed and give up.

I wonder if a more fragmented strategy may be more effective - on a front that is both broader and deeper, based around niche communication between more specialist interest groups within the Conservative Party and the relevant parts of the public. There could perhaps be a “News and Information” type blog, to give a broad “shop window”, but I don’t think a single site can fulfill the potential of blogs for the Tories.

Johnson and Redwood

If we take the examples of the two most senior Conservatives who have taken to blogging like ducks to water - in my view John Redwood and Boris Johnson - they have succeeded by having a strong and very particular style within their own area of interest. Boris Johnson’s blog has given me a strong sense of his personality, while John Redwood’s site has been a sustained policy seminar. Both communicate different aspects of the Conservative Party that appeal to different elements of society, but I’m not sure that either of these styles - which are essential - would work within a group blog.

The Example of the BBC

An interesting model is the BBC (which also has its faults!), where there have been steps over the last several years to open-up the organisation to give direct access to correspondents, but also to allow the interested public to talk to the people inside the BBC who are not correspondents.

They have gone beyond simply trying to use blogs as another, more informal, channel alongside the existing BBC1, 2 etc. The BBC have realised that blogs are a different kind of communication altogether.

On the BBC Blog Network there are several categories of blogs, for example:

(I’ve not turned these into links as they are all accessible from the network page linked above):

• Blogs which give sit alongside the broadcasts giving the backstory and some related commentary (e.g., Nick Robinson, Test Match Special, Evan Davies, Betsan Powys, Mark Mardell on Europe).
• Blogs which are fully integrated into the programmes to the extent of setting the agenda, exploring how “Broadcasting 2.0″ can develop (e.g., Pods and Blogs, iPM)
• Blogs which give insight into the programme-making process and/or BBC policy (e.g., the Editors, Sports Editors).
• Blogs which sit mainly alongside parts of the website (e.g., Ouch!).
• Blogs which are related to BBC institutions not directly concerned with broadcasting (e.g., Scottish Symphony Orchestra).
• Blogs which are related to issues or policy areas (e.g., Freedom of Information).
• Blogs which are related to allowing the public to help develop the service and organisation (e.g., BBC Backstage, Radio Labs).

Implications for the Conservatives

I’m not suggesting that the Conservative Party need as broad a network as this, and in fact a single group blog is possibly a good place to start. Done professionally and without - as Iain puts it - Stalinist moderation, a group blog has potential to give a more open debate between the Tories and the public, and a more “human” approach.

However, I am suggesting that there is also very significant potential beyond the use of a single group blog - for example regional blogs, policy area blogs, campaigning blogs for work with parallel interest groups, blogs to reach out in areas where the party is relatively thin on the ground (e.g., Scotland, the North), and group blogs with companion parties in other countries on common concerns.

Wrapping Up

I’ll be writing more articles in this series looking at other related areas, including:

• Some more specific ideas for a diversified strategy using blogs as a tool.
• Implications for the Centre of such a strategy.
• How to go about managing such an approach.

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