del.icio.us tags 04.04.07

What Do You Want from Me? -- Danielle Rodgers at Small Business Branding sums up a new study from Vizu Answers and Advertising Age about why people read the blogs they do. Nothing surprising in the research (quality writing, topical focus, frequent posts, good site design, credibility), although it is interesting to hear that people are more likely to find blogs through links from other blogs more often than through search results. How did you find this blog?

No, Really, I Want to Hear What You Have to Say - Joshua Levy at Personal Democracy Forum gave me (and the rest of his readers) the heads up on the new web site from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Like Levy says, Patrick is "going where no top elected official in America has ever gone before". (I was born in Massachusetts and went to college and grad school there. Despite the fact that I think Boston is what hell must be like, I feel a little hometown pride welling up inside me.) Sure, Obama and Edwards and the rest of 'em (all 10,000) are using social media to engage voters leading up the 2008 election, but this guy is actually bothering to engage them now that he's in office. The "My Issue" page means that much more, knowing that the guy behind the site is actually in the position to those issues that are dominating the tag cloud. Let's hope he does.

By the way, I'm foaming at the mouth to go to the Personal Democracy Forum Conference in New York next month. I may need to actually pay for this one myself, but the temptation is becoming too much to bear. Social media geeks are one thing, but social media advocacy geeks are a turn on that are more than I can bear.

Joe Takes 'Em On - Joe Biden is taking on his fellow candidates through his Head to Head '08 site, which pits YouTube videos of Biden against videos of Clinton, Kucinich, McCain, Edwards, Dodd, Richardson and Obama. So far all that they're dueling over is Iraq, so let's hope the site grows.