To Blog or Not To Blog

Many of my friends (especially those on the left) would probably disagree with me on this, but I believe the question of whether a political figure or a candidate should blog is somewhat difficult to answer directly. They would likely tell you it’s a no-brainer. You should blog. You should allow comments. You should foster the debate on your web site.

But I’ve discovered that as a professional hack, I see the world differently. I don’t see it the question as a matter of absolutes and their impact on public discourse. I see them as a question of campaign tactics and as a variable in the equation that gets me to 50% plus one. Even if we believe in more lofty goals of public service and public policy, that math is the reality of our political system.

In that equation, there are a lot of factors that weigh into the decision to blog. If the race is expected to get any attention, or the official is a well known player, they’ll want to consider the implications of just about every aspect of the blog. All of these questions tie into a larger question about the role of your web site. The decision to deploy a blog should be driven by your larger strategic goals.

What Is The Strategic Goal of Your Campaign?

The Bush campaign in 2004 is a perfect example. The campaign faced a significant challenge with organizing. Democrats are clustered together in urban centers while Republicans are spread thinner over a wider area in the exurbs and rural areas.

We needed a website that would allow people to interact with the campaign and one that would allow those supporters to spread the message to others. We needed a campaign that fostered as much offline communication as online action.

The campaign chose to include a blog, but chose not to open it up for public comments. Blogs that become popular (especially blogs for marquis candidates like a President) attract a lot of people who sit on the site just “to be seen." Associating with the blog is their way of associating themselves with the campaign. If they hang out on the site all day reinforcing the opinions of other supporters, they are not out organizing or talking to undecided voters.

The campaign site, instead, focused primarily on ways to spread the message to those who were not hanging out on our site – letter to the editor tools, viral marketing and recruitment, talk radio tools, offline organizing through house parties, the ability to get walk lists and call sheets, etc.

Another campaign would have focused on different things.

The Goals Of Your Site Should Reflect The Goals Of Your Campaign

If you have a firm grasp on the strategic goals of the campaign, you can see the purpose of your website, and decide whether a blog meets those goals.

The attention you will receive from the media, the amount of money you will have to move your message or build an audience contribute to the value of a blog or the likelihood that anyone will find it. With 27 million blogs, and countless millions of other websites online, there is no truth to the “If You Build It, They Will Come” belief.

If you are a high-profile, well funded candidate with lots of money to pay for media and a ground game, you want your web site to attract a lot of repeat visitors and a lot of sticky visitors to add a vibrant community to what is otherwise a paid ground game. It will be easier to build an audience for the site with the media exposure you will receive and advertising you will be doing. Spending time communicating with a blog audience will add a human element to your campaign.

If you have a low-profile campaign, or one that is unlikely to attract attention, you may want to spend more time in offline settings as opposed to trying to build an online audience first .

None of this is to say the web is not useful for longshot candidates. Clearly Howard Dean proved that an effective internet campaign can elevate an otherwise unlikely candidate.

Organizing online can be effective, but you must avoid the belief that a strong online community makes a strong base of support. In fact, your online community may be your entire base of support. While they seem vocal, and turn out for you in significant numbers, you may have little support beyond that group.

So You Want A Blog. Now What?

Once you have decided to blog, there are a lot of questions to answer about the mechanics. Just a few examples of things you should ponder:

• Will the candidate/official post themselves? Or will it be ghost written?
-People who spend a lot of time online, and on blogs, can usually tell a ghost written blog, and often get irritated by the tactic.

• If it’s not in the candidate’s name, do you credit the person who runs it?
-On McCain’s campaign in 2000, Max Fose became a household name to McCain supporters because his name was on the messages (while not a blog, it demonstrates the power of personality).
-In 2004, the Bush campaign usually signed everything as the GeorgeWBush.com team.
-For the Democrats, Kerry had posts under the names of his staffers.
-There’s an inherent conflict with a personality driven site like a candidate blog.

• Are you trying to create a new personality the readers should recognize or use the personality of the candidate?

• What about comments? Should you open the site to comments? Do you care if your opponents spread their talking points via your site?
-The Democrats are much more open to this than the GOP.
-The Democrats usually open their comments even if it means GOP talking points are pasted verbatim into the comments.
-The GOP is much more restrictive and on most candidate and party sites, they’ll delete anything that isn’t on message.

• What about profanity?

-People get nasty in blog comments. If that bothers you, there are some filter tools you can use, or you can moderate.
-Moderation takes time and creates administrative overhead.
-Who is your audience? Social conservatives may be more easily offended than a liberal constituency.

These are just a few questions to ask. You’re also going to have to figure out mundane things like to whom you’re willing to link. While John Kerry distanced himself from the DailyKos during the campaign, he now embraces Markos and maintains a diary on his site. The politics that go into such affiliations need careful consideration that may not apply to a normal blog. While it is unfortunate that politics has created a tremendous sense of “guilt by association” and holds candidates responsible for the views of anyone remotely connected to them, it is the reality.

For that reason, any candidate thinking of creating a campaign site or a blog for a public official would be well served to talk to someone who really understands Internet campaigns. Just about every PR firm claims expertise in web strategy, but they are often trying to force traditional media strategies into the Internet space. That rarely works.

You really need someone who a) knows the political internet space and b) understands online audiences. With more and more people abandoning traditional media in favor of the net, that second part is critical. People turn away from traditional media because they dislike the one-way nature of it. Reaching them is difficult and requires a different approach. There are firms on both sides that have solid reputations. You should ask around and not assume your ad firm can do the job. As a matter of fact, you’d be well served to follow the adage, “Don’t get your bread and milk at the same store.”

While this doesn’t directly answer the question of whether or not your campaign should blog, it should at least provide a framework for making that decision.

Editor's note: We will soon be debuting a regular campaign website review written by Michael Turk. If you are interested in contributing your own reviews of campaign websites, please write us a info@personaldemocracy.com with "Campaign website review" in the subject line.