In addition to writing for TechRepublican, I also write the ElephantBiz.com blog and, of course, my own blog, BillHobbs.com. After noticing that the latter is listed on the blogroll of Fred Thompson's pre-campaign website, among several conservative blogs, I decided to check the blogrolls on the websites of the other 10 Republicans currently running for president, and found something interesting:

Not all of them have blogrolls. Not all of them even have blogs. And some of them have a very different view of how to interact with the world of new media, grassroots media and social media than do others.

That led me to write a series of posts surveying the websites of the 11 candidates for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination to report on how they interface with the "new media," a/k/a/ the "social media" world of blogs, MySpace, YouTube and such.

What I found was a rather wide disparity. Some candidates had the requisite links to official campaign pages on social media platforms like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, while others actively court the independent conservative blogosphere with "Bloggers For ____" lists and other ways to reach out the the grassroots media.

I also found that money, or the lack thereoff, bears little correlation to how a campaign is able to incorporate the social media into its efforts.

I presented the survey in a series of 11 posts at ElephantBiz.com on Monday, giving each a grade.

Below are links to the 11 reviews. Your comments are welcomed.

Sam Brownback Web Review
Jim Gilmore Web Review
Rudy Giuliani Web Review
Duncan Hunter Web Review
Mike Huckabee Web Review
John McCain Web Review
Mitt Romney Web Review
Tom Tancredo Web Review
Fred Thompson Web Review
Tommy Thompson Web Review
Ron Paul Web Review

The first kind of Campaign Blog was the Candidate Issue blog. The purpose is to clearly communicate the ideas and the personality of your candidate.

The second kind of campaign challenger blog is the incumbent blog. Using a series of Google and Technorati alerts, as well as search engines like BlogPulse, the campaign searches for information the candidate delivers.

You want photos, video, and text of the incumbent speaking. You want votes the incumbent makes. You want articles they write. The goal is not to be negative, but to provide a reservoir of information for people to make their own decisions about the incumbent.

Why would you spotlight another candidate? Two reasons. First - if you create the best reservoi of information online, you will capture the eyeballs of reporters, political bloggers, and curious citizens who want to know more about your race. Using ads, and later on, contrasting your candidate blog with the incumbent blog, you can show why your candidate deserves to unseat the incumbent. You also create a reserve of stored images and video that can be used for online campaign ads. Many people speak out of both sides of their mouth, or attempt to placate audiences. When they do, you will have a place that you can go to to compare and contrast the incumbent's own words. There's no telling what will work, but by storing the information, you'll have easy access to it.

If your opponent stumbles, you'll be there to chronicle it.

Now be aware, this is not a negative blog. The writer will not be trying to catch the incumbent, or change the photos, or argue against what is said in the text. This is a storehouse of information that you can use elsewhere.

And if you start it early enough - you'll own a significant chunk of the incumbent's online profile. It is very important that you have a high PageRank site with multiple incoming links. Owning someone's else's image online is a powerful tool you'll be able to use later in the campaign.