With the launch of LabourList, Britain’s governing party is aiming to up its game online. The Guardian gets a conservative blogger to write up a solid if somewhat unkind report about it.
Ironically, when I started doing digital communication for the Socialist party in 1996, the Labour was a shining example. Not so much for their online presence (which is now awesome and funny), as for the amazing work left-of-center techies were doing in supporting day-to-day party operations. Supplying internet access, developing software for canvassing, maintaining communication tools like mailing lists, supplying trainings and education for day-to-day activities as well as for policy-level staff — the list of practical achievements was long.
Of course, the French socialist party is a very different machine to the UK Labour or the Dutch PvdA, in that it’s never really been a mass party. As such, it’s never felt the need to develop CRM capabilities. I believe this explains Ségolène Royal’s success: unlike Obama, she’s not a particularly articulate or inspiring politician, but she’s the only one trying to build systems that favor the involvement of numbers of supporters. Her strength has been her ability to attract new members to the party, which she’d gather and keep motivated through an organized network, using technology and repeatable processes.
Ségolène won the nomination for the 2007 election, but lost the presidency to a short, regrettable man, and then failed to capture the Socialist party. Her 2006 momentum is now part of the PS’s landscape, and she has shed a lot of its nontraditional supporters.
I don’t know how LabourList will turn out. The stinging criticism (both on the site itself and in the comments under Ian Dale’s article) does not sound very hopeful, and the first impression it made on me didn’t make me think I’d return or follow its RSS feed.
Political positioning aside, Ian Dale has very sound advice (which I’m going to blog about at ASICS to motivate my colleagues):
[LabourList creator Derek] Draper plans to spend three days a week on the site. That’s not enough. He needs to breathe it morning, noon and night, especially in the first six months. It’s his baby and it is his efforts that will make it succeed or fail. He’s got to be the inspirational driving force behind it. It needs to be updated many times a day.
But will that be enough? And how does one sustain such dedication?
The Obama campaign was the perfect example of an efficient division of labor, with the candidate taking the lead on policy, and inspirational for his team, but surrounded by a broad enough team of good professionals to amplify this goodness and make it touch as many people as possible. The right systems were put in place: brilliant CRM (customer relationship management is just the business term for canvassing, really), the right media mix (loads of TV, enough new media to reach further and deeper), and a very consistent, consistently well-delivered message.
But this entire approach was built on the existence of a very intelligent, likable, “satisfying” politician, who earned the support of many by being who he was. Perhaps this is what’s missing in the UK and in France: a political leader so well-rounded he/she can federate the energies of all these good professionals, connect with a wider group of people, as well as come up with sound policy.
Political blogging as an indication of party health
With the launch of LabourList, Britain’s governing party is aiming to up its game online. The Guardian gets a conservative blogger to write up a solid if somewhat unkind report about it.
Ironically, when I started doing digital communication for the Socialist party in 1996, the Labour was a shining example. Not so much for their online presence (which is now awesome and funny), as for the amazing work left-of-center techies were doing in supporting day-to-day party operations. Supplying internet access, developing software for canvassing, maintaining communication tools like mailing lists, supplying trainings and education for day-to-day activities as well as for policy-level staff — the list of practical achievements was long.
Of course, the French socialist party is a very different machine to the UK Labour or the Dutch PvdA, in that it’s never really been a mass party. As such, it’s never felt the need to develop CRM capabilities. I believe this explains Ségolène Royal’s success: unlike Obama, she’s not a particularly articulate or inspiring politician, but she’s the only one trying to build systems that favor the involvement of numbers of supporters. Her strength has been her ability to attract new members to the party, which she’d gather and keep motivated through an organized network, using technology and repeatable processes.
Ségolène won the nomination for the 2007 election, but lost the presidency to a short, regrettable man, and then failed to capture the Socialist party. Her 2006 momentum is now part of the PS’s landscape, and she has shed a lot of its nontraditional supporters.
I don’t know how LabourList will turn out. The stinging criticism (both on the site itself and in the comments under Ian Dale’s article) does not sound very hopeful, and the first impression it made on me didn’t make me think I’d return or follow its RSS feed.
Political positioning aside, Ian Dale has very sound advice (which I’m going to blog about at ASICS to motivate my colleagues):
But will that be enough? And how does one sustain such dedication?
The Obama campaign was the perfect example of an efficient division of labor, with the candidate taking the lead on policy, and inspirational for his team, but surrounded by a broad enough team of good professionals to amplify this goodness and make it touch as many people as possible. The right systems were put in place: brilliant CRM (customer relationship management is just the business term for canvassing, really), the right media mix (loads of TV, enough new media to reach further and deeper), and a very consistent, consistently well-delivered message.
But this entire approach was built on the existence of a very intelligent, likable, “satisfying” politician, who earned the support of many by being who he was. Perhaps this is what’s missing in the UK and in France: a political leader so well-rounded he/she can federate the energies of all these good professionals, connect with a wider group of people, as well as come up with sound policy.