When Paul Martin launched his own weblog, I was momentarily excited about the prospect. What could be hipper than a Prime Minister with a weblog? It was almost as if the ghost of Pierre Trudeau had whispered in Martin’s ear. “Be a man. Tell them who you are. Remember my checkered pants, my cape, and my flouncy hat.”
Alas. Poor Martin. As my co-conspirator said, “politicians just don’t grok blog style communication”.
It isn’t so much that they don’t get it. The problem is pretty elementary. They don’t have anything to say. And when they do, they’re so accustomed to their own media-washed doublespeak, they sound outright silly. In fact, other than the brave Mr. Broadbent, I am hard pressed to recall a politician who actually self-authored a blog.
- Tips for politicians who want to be hip.
- Have something to say. In your own words, please.
- Use a spell checker.
- Don’t hire your kids, or that hottie volunteer web-mistress, to do your “blog”.
- Don’t call it a “blog”.
Call me old fashioned, but having Steven Mandel’s obviously middle-aged face on a site with the word Blog in one of the major links doesn’t help his credibility. Think of all the older folk who don’t know what a Blog is. I’ve never liked the word myself. I love self-publishing, but I’ve always loathed the title those twenty-somethings over at Pyra Labs coined when they popularized the personal website. It sounds suspiciously like something you’d do in the bathroom.
And for heaven’s sake, don’t call it an ‘official’ blog. What, is there an unofficial version I should know about. A bootleg blog? Or do you wish to give me the impression your Blog is your actual writing — not the product of some Gap-adorned twenty-something (with those square-toed high sheen Doc Martins and a crisp white cotton shirt over designer denims) disguised as a campaign ‘volunteer’.
The larger sin is having a Blog page with nothing on it. It smacks of concession as in: “All right kids, fine, make a blag, or whatever you call it, just… put it on the bottom of the links list.”