E-Campaign Launched

After a lot of planning and preperation I am pleased to announce that I have an exciting new election website, launched today.

You can visit the site via www.antonylittle.co.uk. From here you will be able to contact me, read my thoughts on local issues, view a map showing what I've been up to around Norwich, see which local campaigns I supports, study my honesty pledges for how I will act if elected, watch videos and find out Conservative Party policy for the upcoming general election.

I am genuinely excited to announce this new website. The internet is the best tool for interacting with residents as it enables a real-time exchange of thought and opinion on the big matters for Norwich. Norwich Conservatives have always been at the forefront of e-campaigning in this constituency and this new site puts us one-step ahead yet again.

We have an active presence on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. I also regularly update this blog so that residents can read my personal views on local issues. But this new website really brings all of these together, making it easier for residents to find out what I'm doing and what I stand for - I hope they will be able to make use of it.

There are various ways to find out more about my campaign for Norwich South:
www.antonylittle.co.uk
www.norwichconservatives.com
http://twitter.com/antonylittle
http://www.antonylittle.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7796069423&ref=ts

Are web stats linked to the paper campaign?

The patron saint of blogging, Iain Dale, is often bemoaning politicans who don't take advantage of e-campaigning either to keep in touch with constituents or to get elected in the first place. With a blog (this one), a website, a regular e-newsletter and more to come I'd like to consider myself somewhere in the top half of candidates when it comes to using the net. But one moan of MPs and the like about online campaigning is there is little evidence about the actual impact it has; and a recent statistic I have come across may help to flesh this out a little.

My campaign site - www.electantonylittle.com - is run using wordpress which has a much clearer and easier stat counter than most providers. You can see on a graph how many unique visitors you have and it is therefore easier to correlate this against other campaigning activity.

If the site it linked to by another big player - either Dale or ConHome - then you get a spike in visitors. Similarly if it gets a name check in the local press or even sometimes this blog can push visitors over to it.

I don't see e-campaigning and traditional campaigning (posters, leaflets et al) as mutually exclusive and thus we spend a lot of time in Norwich South out delivering and door knocking. The website has featured in the latest leaflet which is currently being delivered.

And with each big delivery session ... yes, you get "the peak" too; so last weekend we delivered thousands of leaflets in Thorpe Hamlet, Lakenham, Town Close, New Costessey, Bowthorpe and Earlham - and yes, the site got its biggest day of traffic. Yesterday we splurged in Eaton - another spike - and today in Town Close - and, yes, a smaller but very clear spike.

Because this happens everytime we do a major leaflet drop and there being no other explanation the web stas have to be linked to the paper campaign; if people like what they read or want to know more they can go online.

So yes I believe the future of politics is online and the visitors on sites like this are increasing all the time. But many candidates will wonder how to develop an audience; and here we come to a chicken and egg situation. You have to run a good paper campaign to establish your online presence - but when you have and people return time after time, then the internet comes into its own.

LibDems take an e-lead on news

Regular readers of this blog (that's John AND Eileen!) will know that two of my most strongly held views are that e-campaigning - the use of e-mail and the internet - will be major determinants of voting intention within ten years and that the LibDems, despite much bragging otherwise, are currently lagging behind both other parties in the use, design and content of their national and local websites.

So it was with some dread that I recently signed up to the e-News service of all three major parties and prepeared my inbox for what was to come.

Cameron has, so far, put e-campaigning at the heart of his strategy to sell himself and the new-look party. Why then is the national website offering such a pisspoor e-News service. They come irregularly, mostly out of date and in lots of seperate e-mails making it difficult to read. I actually got quite annoyed by this and ceased even opening them. Still, that was better than Labour whom have yet to send me anything that isn't about the Labour Supporters Network or an offer to join the party.

So who can fill this apparent national e-News void? Step forward the LibDems.

Their website is crap, full of crap and actually getting crapper ... but their e-News is bang on the money. It comes each day (including Sunday) and offers a digest of their news output including some stuff otherwise hidden away on their website. It all comes with a three line summary and then a link to the full story. It may not look pleasing but it is full of news and in a format that I want to recieve it in.

Projects such as Webcameron are great at pleasing a certain section of the online community but I think all parties such offer equal thought to those who want news and policy, as well as podcasts and downloads. Maybe Dave should sign up the LibDem e-News and see what our party should be doing?