Being social and political blogging Social media is so wonderfully social: I reckon that I've met more people from the PR industry through blogging in the last 18 months than I have in the previous five years. Social media is bringing about a spirit of cooperation rather than competition.

I've just had lunch with Mark Hanson, digital-champion at TWBA-owned Stainforth and contributor to Labourhome.

Hanson broke the story to PR Week that Jerome Armstrong has been parachuted in from the US to run Brian Paddick's London Mayoral web campaign. He reckons that it's the sign of things to come and will signal the first real use of social media in a political campaign.

Hanson says:

"Jerome runs a hugely influential Democrat blog called MyDD and played a big part in putting a little known Governor called Howard Dean within an ace of being the Democrat nomination for President in 2004. The lessons of this campaign - talking to people on eye-level, in their language not in sound bites and being prepared to have a two-way dialogue - have influenced politicians across the globe. He co-wrote a superb book called Crashing The Gate that lays out the lessons for the political establishment."

Blogging politicians are two-a-penny in the UK but few actually see it as a two-way process. I tried engaging with the Labour campaign manager and MP Tom Watson via his blog during the Southall Ealing bi-election last year, only to have comments deleted when I asked difficult questions.

Back to the Mayoral election: Boris Johnson is currently 12 points ahead of Labour's Ken Livingstone on 49 per cent, with Paddick trailing on 12 per cent. Paddick can afford to take risks with his web strategy.

Labels: agency life, social media

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