More and more local politicians will start embracing social media as part of their political profile. During elections, they will use it to campaign, to organise their supporters, to solicit donations and to explain their positions. While in office, they will use social media to listen and engage with local people, to provide information to local residents and perhaps to campaign on local issues.0 Comments

Search engines like Google love blogs because they are usually frequently updated and their structure makes it easy to point directly to relevant content. But you can do a few things to make your online presence easier to find. As you begin to use social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and especially blogging, you’ll want to build up their readership to extend their impact. These tips are based on the advice of Mary Reid, Kingston-upon-Thames councillor and long-time blogger.0 Comments

1. Choose your name well: your name is your political brand, so make sure that your blog name and usernames for networks like Twitter clearly identify you as you. This is particularly important if your real name has already been taken by someone else. Although you will certainly want to identify yourself as a councillor, you may or may not want to use the councillor identity as part of your website address or ID (www.cllrsmith.com for example). Keep in mind that you may not win the next election or may not stay with your current party, but still want to remain in local politics and use your online presence. It’s much easier to change a few headers on your blog than to change a URL address such as www.democratpat.com.  It’s slightly easier to change your Twitter ID.0 Comments

2. Make your blog search engine-friendly: most people will be interested in you because of the place you represent. Make sure that your ward, your council and commonly used neighbourhood names are included in any ‘about’ sections and are frequently mentioned in individual blog posts where relevant. Location, location, location.0 Comments

3. Content is king: if you’re covering local issues well, you may be the only online source of information that’s important to local people but not listed in the local newspaper. Local people searching for information about schools, libraries or parking will come to your blog.0 Comments

4. Get linking: if there are other political bloggers, particularly in your area, start linking to them. Ask members of your own party to link to you. The more linked you are by websites with lots of sites linking to them, the more you’ll be found in internet searches.0 Comments

5. Cross-link: make sure that all your relevant social media accounts link up. Does your Twitter address link to your blog and vice versa? If you have a Facebook political page, you can set it up to be automatically updated from your blog. Is your website address in your email signature? Make sure your councillor profile on the council’s website links to your blog. Some councils don’t allow this, so this may be something you want to take up at an organisational level.0 Comments

6. Be reciprocal: the blogosphere (a term to describe the online culture of bloggers) is built as much on reading and commenting as it is on writing and publishing. Good bloggers will leave comments on others’ posts and most blogs will allow you to leave a link to your website in the comments section. Some local discussion forums have this functionality, too. But be careful. You can link to your blog in all kinds of online spaces, but make sure that it’s relevant to the discussion at hand. If you’ve written about a specific issue being discussed, link directly to that post. If you just randomly drop links, it looks desperate.0 Comments

7. Leave a paper trail: make sure your political leaflets, cards and so on have your web address or social network details.0 Comments

8. Be a champion for your local area: nobody is ever too busy to read good things about themselves or their projects. When you post a good news story, email the people involved to let them know. They will likely pass it on to other people too.0 Comments

9. Be a good host: a good blog can provide a platform for further discussion. A good host will encourage comments, and these are a key driver for repeat visits. That usually means culling comments which are offensive (the racist, sexist, and homophobic ones or those that attack private individuals, for example) but allowing a healthy and vigorous debate, including disagreement with you.0 Comments

10. Be realistic: if your blog concentrates on local issues, it is going to be of interest only to a relatively small group of people. But those are often precisely the individuals who are likely to make a difference in your area. Quite ‘low’ numbers can actually mean a huge reach in a small area.0 Comments