Anyone who goes to any of the conferences this year should, one hopes, come away knowing a little more about political blogs than they did when they arrive. At least that is the hope with the release of a pamphlet by the Godfather of political blogging Iain Dale.The pamphlet, another first for the UK, is titled "Iain Dale's Guide to Political Blogging in the UK" and featured Dale's Top 100 political blogs in the UK, as well as Top 100 listing for the three main political parties and the non-aligned blogger.
In between the ranking lists are short pieces that can be best described as blog posts, by a number of people including Francis Maude, Adam Boulton, David Milliband and of course Guido.
The most surprising thing about the pamphlet is that Iain managed to find 400 blogs to rank and categorise in the way he did. That in itself is an achievement. For me personally the highlight is reading David Milliband's comment and then reading Guido's.
What sticks in my mind most is Guido talking of Milliband's blog being "as politically honest as Pravda in the days of Stalin... his blog is more about bridging the gap with people who agree with him... Worst of all he hands down his wisdom in a smug self congratulatory tone. His is a master class in how not to blog."
Overall the pamphlet is informative and given my position in it I'm hardly likely to complain about it.
4 comments:
Dizzy, that is a summary, not a review. A review is distinguishable by its inclusion of opinion rather than reiteration of content.
Now please tell us what you think of it??!!
A fair point pedantically made. I'm ranked in the top 20 overall and 5th in the Tory list. Therefore I clearly hate it.
In seriousness I thought the inclusion of Milliband's comment with Guido's was masterful. I think Kevin Macguire is up his own arse. Overall it was great, the only thing I wonder is whether all 400 blogs will be running still in two months time.
For some reason I can't stop thinking of the Goonies right now though.
I've long said that Miliband's blog is nothing other than a ministerial post and he refuses to listen or respond to his readers. Even top social media experts have removed him from their feeds, they find him too boring. So very true words from Guido. I like Margot Wallstrom's blog because she will tell you about her personal life too, the friend's wedding she attended, her aged mother's problems, as well as the European issues she is dealing with.
I did think the guide could have included examples of top stories broken via blogging that have been picked up by the mainstream media. Certainly it is a great read.
I think the key thing Iain missed in his recommendations for successful blogging was to get out there and comment on other people's blogs. If you don't do that, no-one will find out you are blogging, except by accident.
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