Nick Denys

18th Aug 2011

It’s August, so that must mean Total Politics are once again conducting their annual survey into peoples favourite political blogs. If you want to vote click here. Of course, most members of the political blogosphere all pretend it doesn’t matter where they are placed, while simultaneously canvassing for votes (ps, did I mention that you can vote for your favourite… cough cough… blog by clicking here…)

Influence

The vote got me thinking about how political social media has evolved in the two years since I first started blogging. A question I occasionally get asked is: “Is blogging worth the effort?” My answer is always a big fat YES. As a political blogger (and tweeter) you have a voice in this massive, twisting, never ending conversation about how the world should operate. Influence is hard to measure in the world of social media but I subscribe to a version of the chaos theory. In the same way that a butterfly flapping its wings in Hawaii can help to cause an earthquake in China, a quick blog or tweet from a person with few followers can help shape the direction of the macro debate. Sometimes a blog will blow up so big that you end-up finding yourself in the surreal position of being asked your opinion on a national media outlet on the same evening after your wrote the blog in the morning – as happened to Simon Marcus on Monday.  

Sharp thinking

On a practical level blogging is a great discipline for marshalling your ideas into easily communicated chunks. If I am having a discussion in the pub, trying to convince someone on the doorstep, or sharing a lift with a decision maker, I find that I make my best case if I have blogged on the matter. Blogging also helps keep my general writing sharp – though I know I still need to work at my spelling and editing skills! The best advice I received about communication in general is make sure you inform, emote and entertain (h/t Steve Baker MP). If your blog does those three things then a lot of other stuff will be forgiven. The other piece of good advice comes from Nike: Just do it.

The community of choice

Social Media is also a great way to meet like minded people, many of whom are interested in same sorting of plotting as you are (by plotting I mean putting the world to rights over a coffee or a beer). It’s becoming a more and more common experience when I meet someone new at an event that I have already talked to them through Twitter or commented on a blog of theirs. Twitter can make you feel closer to politicians/journalists/celebrities, and often changes my opinion of them. Who would have thought that I could actually end up liking Joey Barton? William Hague uses Twitter well when he does a quick Q&A session after visiting some far flung land. A word of warning though, the Twitter interaction feels very personal so it only works if you are yourself and treat people in the same manner as you would face-to-face.    

And finally…

One of the issues I have as a blogger is that I often try to write four blogs in one. Blogs should never be over 600 words (and even that is pushing it). I will write a second blog – the one I actually intended to do when I started tapping away at the keyboard – in the next few days on the UK political blogosphere; including the rise of both partisan and non-partisan group blogs, how different think-tanks blog, how the traditional powerhouses are doing, what newspapers are up to, blogging as a public affairs tool and other stuff I’ve not even though about yet. In the mean time let me use a picture to leave you with one last though…