Online Politics 101: The Tools and Tactics of Online Advocacy

25. June 2008 – 10:27 by christophdowe-politik-digital.de

Think before you act! Before setting up online communication tools, you need an communication strategy first! Don´t use Blogs and Social Media as means without ends - if you want to reach people, who should have something to say!

This sounds like good old common sense to most eDemocracy advocators and long-time practioners. But this low-level approach might fit best to reach not so web-savvy politicians and people who are new on the field of online politics.

The free e-book “Online Politics 101: The Tools and Tactics of Online Advocacy” exactly aims at these people. Written by Colin Delayne, web-consultant, founder and editor of e.politics.com, the report introduces “candidates, advocacy organisations, corporate interests and everyday citizens” to online politics and advocacy tools, from the very basic as Websites and Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) to E-Mail-Lists, Blogs, and Social Media. The e-book has recently been updated and now contains sections about how to use tools as Facebook and Twitter for promoting candidates or shaping opinions.

Delayne explains all these tools in plain English, stressing that which tool to use and how to use it depends on your targetgroup as well as on what you want to achieve. Fine thing is, most of his tips apply international (although tools like Google ads or text messaging for political means are not broadly used in Germany).

Simone Gerdesmeier (politik-digital.de)