Today’s candidates, for the most part we’ll use the Presidential candidates as an example, are aware of the powerful presence of the Blogsphere and, for lack of a better term, The Social Networking Sphere.
Each campaign has hired Online Coordinators, Bloggers and Strategists. We see the candidates themselves make posts from time to time. Their Campaign Bloggers we see in print more often.
The Campaign’s understand that the Campaign Blogger, (CB), isn’t a vehicle for releasing media advisories or news releases. The CB must be far more effective than simply another channel for news releases or event announcements. Most campaigns understand that the primary task of the CB is to create two way communication with the blog reader. This two way communication, far more effectively than in the past, gives the reader a greater sense of involvement in the campaign. It can, and does, become a very emotional attachment to the Candidate.
By and large, they’ve done a fair job of implementing that concept. Fair. Not great Fair.
So if they understand the importance of the Blogsphere and The Social Networking Sphere why aren’t they supporting, in return, the very medium that gives them, essentially, a free unlimited forum?
There’s a LOT more so read it in its entirety.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.