Since reading Bill Hobbs‘ post a few days ago on expanding the ”red” blogosphere, I’ve been thinking how that can happen. As a an ex-pat Tennessee blogger, I encountered a similar situation with my job. It was really shocking to discover that most states lack the vibrant blogosphere that the Volunteer State has. In a state where fewer than 20% of all residents have college degrees, why is this? If we can figure out why it’s working in Tennessee of all places, can we replicate it in other states or does it need to happen naturally?

Rohit Bhargava at Social Media Today developed 10 Secrets of Successful Online Communities. This is a good starting point, but I would add a few based on research I recently conducted.

1) Keep it local. Find a common thread and build a community around it. Nothing spurs people to action more than local, nimby issues. If national movements were enough, Blogs for Bush, GOP Bloggers would have filled this need. TownHall is on the right track, but like every other rule in public relations--it needs to be localized.

I believe part of Tennessee’s success came from the now defunct Rocky Top Brigade. The only requirement to join was that bloggers had to maintain some Tennessee tie. While many of the blogs were politics only, it built a community. People across the state from different socioeconomic levels, political persuasions, religions and ages came together and it worked. Diverse voices made a huge impact.

2) Don’t niche into politics only. This may be surprising to the hardcore political bloggers, but there are good blogs that aren’t always political. A strong community can’t only be about one topic. Bloggers are people who burn out talking about the same thing every day. Successful online communities may have organized around one or two issues, but they branched out and built relationships with one another.

3) Create offline events to build relationships. As a follow-up to keeping it local. Bloggers love to meet other bloggers. Offline, real life events build on the relationships that were formed online. This creates sustainability and trust within the community. Tennessee now has "Blogger Day on the Hill" in Nashville. I'm curious to see if it happens again because it's a great idea.

4) Go around the party. The best movements and communities happen organically. It’s incredibly hard to sustain a carefully crafted group. Insert the top-down, control arguement here.

5) Use the big shots to carry the little guys. Undoubtedly, much of Tennessee’s success came from having some big name blogs. I was a student at the University of Tennessee when Glenn Reynolds started getting media attention. His name was spoken reverently in marketing and political science classes. Many, many blogs at UT and throughout the state were inspired from his success. Blogging is relational. Most people start blogging because a friend or relative inspired them. Know someone with a strong political voice? Encourage them to start blogging and engaging on the web.