What's a blogger?

Blogger definitions range far and wide--wide enough, I'd posit, to make the term as useful as calling a writer a penner. Some of the most common definitions of a blogger:

Blogger, citizen investigative journalist.

Blogger, someone who participates in online discussions.

Blogger, someone who publishes recipes and tips online using a blog.

Blogger, someone who writes her own blog.

Blogger, someone who reads/comments on other people's blogs.

Blogger, online political activist.

From a campaign's perspective, any and all bloggers can be useful (or disastrous)--because they have an audience and a community. It's the campaign's job to figure out how much effort to invest in reaching these audiences through a particular blogger or blog--just as you determine where to allocate your advertising money. Are the readers of this blog in your district? Are they likely to influence voters in your district? Are they likely to donate time or money to the campaign? Are they likely to influence mainstream media in your district?

Many campaigns hire a blogger to do internet outreach; I'd contend that understanding blogging technology is the single least important qualification for a campaign blogger. It's far more important to understand PR and message delivery--since the campaign's blogger is, in many respects, the campaign's face on the web. It's pretty easy to learn the technology (see the explosion of blogs in recent months), but it's a bit harder to learn how to spin a campaign/candidate faux pas, how to create and maintain a relationship with voters and how to inspire blog readers to offline action. On the other hand, hiring a well-connected blogger can be a stroke of genius if your campaign plan focuses on influencing the influencers and the blogger's influencers overlap with your voters.

--Louella Pizzuti

Senator Dick Durbin's experiment very impressive so far

I'm way behind on reporting on Senator Dick Durbin's collaboration with Open Left to gather input on broadband legislation from the folks on the internet. Sorry about that; I'll try to make up for tardiness with a detailed discussion.

First off, it's quite clear that the Senator and his staff are taking this self-professed experiment quite seriously. They have devoted staff time and the Senator's time to live blogging, to lining up experts to launch and participate in the discussions and they even recorded videos with the Senator to set context.

It's somewhat difficult to follow the Senator's posts on Open Left, so I'll outline them here:

Sun Jul 22, 2007 What should be America's national broadband strategy?
Tue Jul 24 Senator Durbin Live Thread
Weds Jul 25 Legislation 2.0, Part 2: Open networks, privacy, and beyond
Thurs Jul 26 Legislation 2.0, Part 3: Universal broadband access and the public airwaves
Fri Jul 27 Legislation 2.0, Part 4: Building a universal system

I don't want this post to be about America's broadband strategy--you can read that discussion in much more detail at Open Left. Instead, I want to focus on what the Senator's team is doing right with this series.

They start the series with posts that make it clear they've done their homework--they're not having this online discussion as a substitute for traditional research, they're having it to supplement the research they've already done. This is important because it lets prospective participants know the Senator's serious about the topic and the venue. And it allows the Senator's team to set a framework for the discussion. A+

As the discussion unfolds, the Senator, members of his staff and subject-matter experts actively participate by responding directly to comments and by summarizing previous discussions. Again showing that they're taking the whole process seriously and that they respect the time and expertise of the commenters. A+

I'm not clear what their next steps will be (and this could very well be because of Open Left's organization rather than because the Senator didn't articulate them), but this process was a big win for participatory democracy, for the Senator's reputation among web users and, in the end, for the legislation.

My only recommendation for the Senator's team would be to incorporate (or at least link to) this discussion on Senator Durbin's web site; right now the only mention of this ground-breaking online town hall is a news article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

I look forward to seeing where this conversation goes next.

--Louella Pizzuti

Dick Durbin uses web to draft policy (maybe)

A quick glance at Senator Dick Durbin's web site suggests he doesn't quite understand the value of the web as a communications tool--no message apparent on his home page and only one paragraph on the page titled "Working for You". Yikes. But Durbin's recent post on Open Left is much more promising:

Today I'm writing to invite you to participate in an experiment -- an interactive approach to drafting legislation on one of the most significant public policy questions today: What should be America's national broadband strategy?

Starting this Tuesday, July 24 at 7pm EST on OpenLeft.com, I will be engaging in a series of four nightly broadband policy discussions with the online community. During those four nights, I am looking for the best and brightest ideas on what Congress should do to promote and foster broadband.

I will begin each night's discussion with a conversation about some of the core principles I think are important, and then I'll ask for you to contribute your ideas that will help me craft legislation.

If this is more than a one-way, let's-look-like-we're-listening publicity stunt, it will be a big win for small-d democracy. And if it's just a stunt or poorly executed? Expect a feeding frenzy.

--Louella Pizzuti

Blogger outreach and the Tom Allen campaign

The Tom Allen for Senate campaign gets blogger outreach. Almost. [Updated two hours after the original post: Yep, they get it; see below.]

The part where they get it: they have a "Blogger Connection" on the campaign web site. Click through and you see:

Thank you for your interest in my campaign for Senate. As a leader in the online community, your voice has power and we want to provide you with the information and resources you need to cover this race. In 2006 we saw the power and influence of the netroots community during the Jim Webb race in Virginia.

We want to build a relationship with the online community going into 2008 and beyond. Signing up to be a member of the Blogger Connection is easy. Simply fill out the form below and we will get back to you shortly.

Members of the Connection are an important part of my campaign. As a member of the Connection you will receive press releases from the campaign as well as other information that will to make [sic] your jobs easier.

Looks good--they understand the influence bloggers can exert on a race (even if they don't proof their copy very well).

But when I filled out the "Blogger Connection" form to join, I got a file-not-found error. Whoops.

I'm (sadly) used to political web sites that aren't well tested (see #6 on my top-ten most embarrassing mistakes list), so I shot the campaign an email alerting them to the problem. And I heard back from them within minutes of publishing this post; they're clearly keeping a sharp eye on blog coverage of their candidate.

[updated to add: Not only is the campaign keeping a sharp eye on blog coverage, they're also moving quickly to address problems. I just received an email from the Allen campaign's Director of Internet Communications alerting me to the fix. If you follow their lead and thank the people who point out problems and then address them right away, the story becomes about your responsiveness rather than your mistake.]

--Louella Pizzuti

Should your campaign credential bloggers?

Sometimes. You wouldn't credential a writer just because she had a pencil and you shouldn't credential a journalist just because she has a blog. And because you're less likely to be familiar with every blog than with other, more established media, you'll need to determine whether to credential blog by blog.

But it doesn't end there... there was quite a flap when a self-professed blogger was asked to leave a closed-to-the-press Obama event. The blogger wrote long and often about how he was interested in the topic (faith and politics) and how he should have been allowed to stay because being a blogger didn't remove his citizenship.

Your campaign will need to determine how to deal with these situations as they arise, but hopefully being forwarned will help.

--Louella Pizzuti

McNerney team uses headlines to tell the story

The folks who are running Congressman Jerry McNerney's blog understand marketing and writing for the web. Take a look at the picture above and glance at the headlines in the right column (recent posts).

[Well, until I can get Blogger to display the image properly, I'll repeat the headlines here so you can actually read them. They are: McNerney votes for Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act, McNerney helps prevent cuts to lab worker retirement benefits, Contra Costa Times: "McNerney comes through...", Did you know Richard Pombo's "longtime friend" is running against me?, What you want: "Give 'em hell, Jerry!", and McNerney on releasing earmark requests: "I came to Washington on a campaign of openness and ethics".]

Headlines that stand on their own to tell your story are marketing 101, but too many campaign blogs choose cute or clever over compelling. Informative headlines are even more important on the web because people may be subscribing to your feed and only ever seeing the headline. When you can't be sure people are getting the whole article, you better be sure to use the headline to get your top-line message across.

--Louella Pizzuti

Related posts

Congressman Jerry McNerney informs, inspires and raises funds online

Integrating the web wins elections

Newspaper launches candidate "blog"

The Boulder Daily Camera has started a new "blog" for the 14 city council candidates who are vying for one open seat. The Camera poses a question, requests responses from candidates, and posts everything on their web site. New questions will appear every Tuesday and Friday until the election concludes July 10.

This is interesting from a couple of different perspectives. First, it shows that the paper acknowledges the web as an important information venue for their readers. (And remember, the paper isn't just guessing here--no doubt they're tracking how many visitors come to their site, what they're doing, and what keeps them coming back.)

From the voters' (and small-d democracy) perspective, this is a great service. Debates give the illusion of a side-by-side comparison, but they usually go no deeper than exposing who needs more media training. The Camera's format gives candidates time to formulate a complete response and captures all responses in one place for voters.

And finally, from a campaign's perspective, it's wonderful exposure if you believe your candidate truly has the ideas and perspectives the voters want. I'd definitely consider having a L2Ed campaign asking local papers to follow the Camera's lead.

Clearly there's more than one way to use blog technology to amplify your message and expand your audience. More on this later.

--Louella Pizzuti

Should politicians blog? You're asking the wrong question.

The right question is, "should politicians publicize what they're doing?" (Let's assume we're talking about elected officials who honor the public trust.) The answer to that question, I hope you'll agree, is a resounding yes!

So then it's just a matter of deciding how you deliver the message.

Press releases?
Definitely! But sending them to press outlets puts you at the mercy of the publication--if they don't print, your constituents don't know. At the very least, take this material and publish it on your blog as well.

Direct mail?
Possibly. Direct mail's expensive and disposable recyclable, but maybe you have a compelling need to get things directly to the homes of your constituents. You'll still want to make it available on your web site or on your blog for people who discarded your letter without reading it and for anyone who's just curious.

Online?
Of course! No distribution costs and a permanent, searchable archive of your accomplishments. And if you do it right, news outlets will learn to come to your site to get information and background for stories they're writing. How much is that worth to you and your future campaigns?

--Louella Pizzuti