OneHourAhead

Blogging and that

Continuing the meta-blogging mode of late where we all question our existence at the behest of the member for Hornsey and Wood Green I thought I would add my dix centimes.

Firstly, I would like to point out what I think Lib Dem blogs do right:

• Local issues: I know, blah blah, localism, blah, blah but, although personally I don’t read them one of the best things about the Lib Dem blogosphere is that there are many councillors, AM’s and MP’s out there that are blogging for their constituents, not for you and me and Westminster.  This is an excellent way to get across to people. For instance, say you are a young mum or dad in central Manchester wondering about schools and centres for your kid, you hear of a possible new centre called ‘Butterstile’. You google ‘Butterstile Children’s Centre’ and the first entry is Richard Baum’s entry on the place, above the local paper link.  People click there and find out about the centre AND about Richard Baum, who they may never have heard about before, they are then introduced to Richard, the Lib Dems and the local party.  Excellent. I bet every local blog has a story like that and they all add up.
• Write well:  When I first started blogging I thought my writing was pretty good, what with my A in GCSE English and all.  Thought you’d all be falling at my feet waiting for my next morsel with which to satisfy yourselves.  Unfortunately I started blogging around about the time Alix Mortimer did. Bugger.  Next to her it just looks like I am beating my fists against the keyboard whilst drunk on envy.  Add to that a sprinkling of James, Paul, Neil, Jonny and Anders plus many more and we have ourselves a very coherent, eloquent voice out here on the interweb.  This may seem like a minor point but there is nothing that is going to turn off people like summit that ain’t write wellen like.
• Wimmin: I know there could always be more but at least there are some. We’ve got Alix, Bridget, Charlotte, Jenny, Jo, Jo, Jo, Linda, Lynne, Mary, Maureen and Meral and even a bonafide Baroness. The Tories have got Mad Nad. Nuff Said.
• Constructive criticism: We understand that those poor dittle people wearing yellowly orange in the westy minsty housey somewtimes get it an incey bit wrong. Aw, bless ‘em, look at ‘em in there nice Burton suits. We pat them on the head, point them in the right direction and let them get on with it. We don’t castigate them for not bringing back hanging or not killing all the poor. Neither do we stick our tongues right up their fundaments.
• Issues: Our blogs actually contain issues, some of the quite in depth discussions on areas of our or others policies. They are not the electronic equivalent of “You know your MP, right? He takes it right up the chutney, he does. Swear.”  The latter may get more page views but doesn’t quite move the debate on as much as the former.  Some of the blogs I generally agree with, some I don’t, but at least I/we have the chance to think about stuff whereas others are not so fortunate.
• Non-issues:  Be it James Graham’s discussions on the inner workings of the British comic market, Jenny detailing her latest hangover or Ed Fordham’s daily virtual tours around North London, we shouldn’t be afraid to, dare I say it, show our personality. Oh gosh!  I love The Wire, most comedy and stupid or profound things written down.  And, godammit, when I’m done you bastards will love them too!

So that’s all good, what about things we could do better? 

Lynne’s originally post was about whether the blogs could be used as a more pro-active, attacking campaigning device a la the Great Union of Richard.  This is a possibility but one that I think is unlikely.  In the UK, the poliblogs with larger audiences or more well-known seem to be the ones with no immediate party political affiliation, even if they do tend towards the right, libertarian edge of the spectrum.  The party political ones are not so well-read or good, maybe for the reasons highlighted in Andy Mayer’s post on the subject, essentially they are not free to do what they wanna do, to ride their machines without being hassled by the man.  It could also be that we are all such frightfully nice people that we wouldn’t dream of such nastiness.

The reason Lynne brought up this subject was due to her Twitter post receiving a lot of attention and spreading around the Lib Dem blogosphere and beyond.  I think there are three lessons from this that other MP’s et al could learn from if they want to get more representation here in electric world:

1. Be Zeitgeisty - Twitter is the new Facebook which was the new MySpace which was the new, er, tea-room.  Everybody seems to be banging on about all of a sudden.  I don’t move from my desk all day (sob sob) and hate my mobile phone so don’t subscribe to it, but with Brian now signed up it is definitely the soup de jour.  Getting to grips with these new ways of communicating could be vital.  Don’t get me wrong, I still think knocking on someone’s door and explaining why Lib Dem bin collection would be better is vital too, but for an increasing number a knock on the door from someone in a rosette is about as popular as one from a Jehovah’s Witness with an eye for your kids.
2. Be First.  Who was the second MP to have Twitter? Is there one? Do we care? No. Lynne Rules. End of story. She was there first and the rest of you can bugger off.
3. Have Friends.  I know, strange. But if you tell 10 people and they tell 10 people and so on then soon the whole world will know. The ones with computers anyhow. And if some of those friends are outside the LD blogs then real people get to find out too. Wonderous.

So my first message to the party people is if you want us to write about something, and you want others to write about us writing about something, then, well do something.

We do support you but, firstly, we are all self-serving individuals at heart and want you to do things we like and, secondly, try to actually engage with us (and lo and behold others).  These are the secrets to being written about. 

The question shouldn’t be “Are we making the most of blogging?” it should be “Are MP’s make the most of the bloggers?” or “Is the party making the most of a completely new and revolutionary way of communicating?”  The answer to both is not quite (but if I were a Tory or a Labour supporter the answer to that question would be Fuck No! Arragh, shiit!).  

The recent interviews have been a great start and if I was in the country I would have bought Millennium as many sticky buns as he wanted to be able to go along and engage. 

But there are other opportunities. 

We should look at setting up video or skype interviews, or follow Brian’s lead with the Twitter interviews. 

We should also look at how to engage other technically savvy people with the use of t’internet.  Engage the young’uns on Facebook, MySpace or Bebo.  It is not good enough to have a static webpage or profile.  You wouldn’t knock on someone’s door and then stand still and silent when they answered?  Why would you do that on the web? 

A great example of this is explained by our web pioneer Steve Webb in the video I linked to last week.

Blogs, Social networking, Youtube, Twitter, Skype, the Dynamic web are all part of the same system that can allow the party to communicate with people that it couldn’t before and are all begging to be used to suck up voters.

Do, Do, Do, Engage, Engage, Engage - that is the answer to making the most of blogging.  In My Humble Opinion.