Lot’s of campaigns have been contacting me and vice versa. I’m trying to put together some general advice for them. Any campaigns interested, drop me a note at archpundit@yahoo.com. I’m going to send out a general memo on how to work the blogosphere and not just treat it as an ATM (which to my surprise, most campaigns are figuring out on their own). I’ll probably post some of it on here eventually as well.
As a starter though, check out this report that gives some good advice:
The one difference I have on basic strategy is that often a campaign can recruit a volunteer to communicate with blogs and coordinate that with the press operation.
I still think there’s promise in using blog’s to go negative like I did with Blogging Blagojevich’s Blunders.
To reiterate what Markos, Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller have been saying, contact the local bloggers.
Think of blogs as small TV shows. They are easy to appear on because they are looking for material. The audience is small but it’s the people who take issues seriously.
Also, don’t think of blogs as just being about politics. If you have a hobby, find people that blog on that issue and get your visibility out.
Also, put out feelers to bloggers that are not natural ideological allies. If you’ve got one or two issues in common, perhaps the candidate’s charisma can turn a potential hostile into more of a neutral.
Remember the GOP has made hay on being anti-establishment. Democrats ought to be able to tap into anti-establishment sentiments at this point.
I saw that report today, and it was quite interesting.
I did think, though, that their traffic numbers for conservative blogs must be a little low, just as a comparision to my own traffic numbers.
I’m hoping some GOP candidates other than Birkett will make more active use of blogs. There are some excellent local conservative blogs in Illinois, but interaction with statewide candidates, at least from own experience, amounts mostly to my signing up for their email list. A few candidates wouldn’t even allow me to do that, as I refused to give them a real name and mailing address.
I would love to see your memo when you get it together, even though I’m not a campaign or affiliated with one. I hope you’ll share.