Ten reasons why politicians should blog is from a French blogger named Loic Le Meur. Apparently, political blogging really catching on in France. Quick searches on Google turn up a lot of British political blogs, as well. Here in America, the terms “Dean”, “blog” and “election” are all linked together in our minds. Dean (former governor of my home state, Vermont) will forever be known for bringing blogs to the electoral battlefield in a big way (and the Scream). If there’s one thing we in Vermont love, it’s talking politics.
I’m sure you’d love to read the post yourself, but let me just give you the ten reasons without all the explanation.
The ten reasons why politicians should blog:
- To get closer to their audience, their supporters
- To create a permanent open debate with them
- To test their ideas easily and quickly, to enrich them and get new ones
- To switch the way they talk to people usually from institutional to more personal
- To better understand the criticism of the people against their ideas
- To spread their ideas easily if they are supported by many people, in a decentralized way
- To raise funds for their cause, party or campaign
- To reach a younger audience and help young people get more interested in politics
- To create around them network effects
- To become famous if you are an unkown politician, or to start a political action, even locally
Now, I realize the post is over a year old, but these ten reasons are still and will continue to be highly relevant for some time to come.
One Comment
i am watching the blog-war prior to german elections that are possibly going to come this autumn (chancellor schroeder wants to step back in order to be reelected but things are not aprooved by federal president yet - sure you are familiar with this).
blogging is big. especially with schroeder’s social- democrats.
but - as it looks now - it is not necessarily in favour of those who host the blog.
even more: blogging is dynamic, to a good extend spontanous/intuitive and allows a deep going insight into the personality of those frequently involved.
that can be quite tough. like strip-poker. only that you can loose all your clothes in one second - and might never have a chance to put them on again.
blogging for people that stand in the public eye is a discipline with lots of potential pitfalls. and i am sure we are all going to learn a lot about that very soon.
the rules are changing. it is going to be a whole new game.