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May 19, 2005
Politicians Should Heed Call of the Blogosphere
By Clayton Closson
Should a government official or politician blog?
To blog or not to blog. That is the question…. Or is it? How many city managers, municipal PR spinsters, or even political leaders at the top levels even consider blogging? By the looks of the blogosphere not many. According to the Loic Le Meur blog, here are the top ten reasons why a politician should blog:
1. To get closer to their audience, their supporters
2. To create a permanent open debate with them
3. To test their ideas easily and quickly, to enrich them and get new ones
4. To switch the way they talk to people usually from institutional to more personal
5. To better understand the criticism of the people against their ideas
6. To spread their ideas easily if they are supported by many people, in a decentralized way
7. To raise funds for their cause, party or campaign
8. To reach a younger audience and help young people get more interested in politics
9. To create around them network effects
10. To become famous if you are an unkown politician, or to start a political action, even locally
These all seem pretty obvious to me and I’m not sure why ALL politicians aren’t using this tool professionally to help them serve their constituents and keep their jobs. A few are, like Wisconsin State Assemblyman Frank Lasee and John Conyers Jr.
I can’t think of a more obvious example of a politician who needs a blog than the mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick. Mayor Kilpatrick has been slammed, spanked, spun and spiked by the local Detroit media as of late for his conduct -- and his reply has been to deny, dismiss, and disregard. Well, it ain’t working and a host of anti-Kwame websites, such as kwamekilpatrick.com, firejerryo.com have sprung up on the web like weeds in a vacant Detroit lot. But where is the mayor to rebut these remarks? Nowhere online as far as I can tell. And there isn’t even an e-mail for him on the City of Detroit site. Hmmm, someone needs to give him a holler before it’s too late (he is the only incumbent mayor in the last 30 years to be not leading in polls this soon before the upcoming elections). Mayor Kilpatrick needs to get his word out and a blog would be a good start.
Posted by staff at May 19, 2005 09:43 AM
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Comments
Hi,
Since you're mentioning French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur, allow me to emphasize that more and more French politicians do blog indeed. Half a dozen local elected officials just opened their blog last week, and former Finance minister Dominique Strauss Kahn is himself a leading figure in the French political blogosphere. Here's an interview (unfortunately, only in French and Italian) we were granted on this very subject by Dominique Strauss Kahn, which could be of interest to your (French) readers.
http://www.netpolitique.net/php/interviews/interview34.php3
Posted by: Stan at May 19, 2005 11:47 AM
Theories on why Kwame doesn't blog:
1) He can't read, and so he doesn't see what's going on. (Where's his staff, anyway?)
2) Following in the footsteps of Clinton by not putting his name on anything. (Even Nixon got burned by denying everything).
Clearly, burying your head in the sand isn't the best approach with the media, your constituency, or online communications.
Posted by: gladilivesomewhereelse at May 22, 2005 09:14 AM
