Last week, we talked about how President Bush was breaking new ground in doing the first Presidential on-camera online only interview. This week the news is about the Republican who wants to succeed him, John McCain, and his creative blogger relations strategy. McCain is scheduling briefings with left-wing bloggers like those from Talking Points Memo and The Huffington Post and single-issue bloggers, such as health-care bloggers A Chronic Dose and Med Gadget.
McCain has two big issues to overcome in the general election:
- His close ties to the current unpopular administration
- The perception that he is too old and out of touch to be President
This strategy seems to be a smart way to address both issues head-on [again, ed. note: this isn't a political blog. It's about 'smart ways to win the PR game' and this is another example]. McCain has always been an independent thinker, so this strategy doesn’t come as a complete surprise, but it does represent some genuinely creative thinking that could sway some voters.
From the McCain camp, via Wired:
The conference calls are an extension of the weekly calls the senator from Arizona holds with conservative bloggers to brief them on his positions. (At one point during his tumultuous presidential campaign, he joked that bloggers were the only people who were interested in talking to him.)
Asked why he was was bothering to foster a relationship with people who were likely to take pot-shots, Patrick Hynes, one of McCain’s online communications consultants, says: “The one thing that I will say about John McCain is that he loves the rough and tumble of politics.”
Hynes doesn’t say much here, but we can infer that McCain’s team believes that in today’s always-on world, you’re better off engaging with your media adversaries than ignoring them. At least that way, you’ll have the chance to make your case, educate them and perhaps move them away from knee-jerk thinking.
This is another great example of the kind of innovative PR thinking that applies not just to politics, but to business as well. Most companies still don’t have much of a blogger relations policy, let alone a creative one like this — but they should.
