The Wardman Wire

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Two weeks ago I posted about Conservative Party Blogging Strategy.

In this post Mark Pack, who is the Had of Innovations for the Liberal Democrats. Here he outlines the Lib Dem online strategy (and why he thinks it is better than everybody else’s).

I would welcome further contributions to this article series. The subheads are mine.

The recent announcement that the Conservative Party will be launching an official party blog has highlighted the question of what the best blogging strategy is for political parties.

Blogging Tories

Although the Conservative Party has amongst its members and supporters some of the most successful political bloggers in the UK, the party’s official use of blogging has been very thin outside of individual blogs from prominent MPs. Indeed, Iain Dale recently highlighted the rather odd decision to remove links to himself and Conservative Home from the official Conservative Party website.

Labour Bloggers

Blogging on the Labour side has been much lower profile, with as little official blogging as from the Conservative and less success in the blogging activities of its members and supporters who - although producing some excellent content - just do not have the same overall profile as their Conservative rivals. Again, it is the blogging of a few individual MPs that does most to rectify matters. Labour does, though, not only provide links to Labour bloggers from their official website, but the links are there right on the front page.

The Liberal Democrat Approach

The Liberal Democrat approach has been rather different from the other two main parties - and (although as the man responsible for our blogging strategy, you might expect me to say this!) rather more effective.

The blogosphere is always changing, and Darren Rowse of Problogger suggests that there are trends that have been emerging on well-known blogs in the last 12-18 months. In his video post this week he talks through his view.

The typical political blog in the UK is like an extended newspaper column written by one person. That is valid and has value, but we are now in a situation where newspapers and “big media” have learnt how to use blogs effectively to add “personality” to their more formal coverage. I think these trends offer some pointers for how independent bloggers can compete.