Edwards gets it right with blog effort

Edwards has launched its blog effort, and while late, it's solid.

Not only is it based on Slash, the premier community building tool, but they've also created sections for every state and territory with a primary.

It's not perfect, of course. The state sections have URLs like:

http://share.johnedwards2004.com/index.pl?section=AS

It would be much nicer to have user-friendly URLs for those state-specific pages. And it would be REALLY cool if those state sections where customized with, say, the state flag, colors, birds, flower, recognizable landmark, or whatever. Instead, each state blog looks like the others. (The reason is obvious -- they didn't build 50 blogs, they simply created categories off the main one. And it's impossible to customize category pages. They must all look the same.)

Furthermore, the message boards seem a bit overproduced (see here), and will probably load slowly if they get a large number of comments on those boards. And speaking of comments, why can't I see how many people have posted comments at the bottom of each blog entry?

But most importantly, most of the states are missing content. Ultimately, content is king and will determine the effectiveness of Edwards' tech efforts. Having a section for American Somoa is cool, but only if someone is updating it. Otherwise it's kind of sad. It says: "John Edwards doesn't give a flying f about your neck of the woods".

But this is a solid first effort. Whether Edwards' team can build community remains to be seen. Blogs are just tools. They have to be wielded skillfully to generate success.

But this initial effort bodes well. The foundation is solid.

Posted September 04, 2003 09:41 AM | Comments (62)