Kevin Anderson of the Guardian has a good post up about the McCain MySpace “hack” specifically and the use of social networks by campaigns more generally.  He sums up what I’ve been trying to get at this week with my Digg and McCain posts. 

Anderson writes about candidate presences on social networks:

It’s pretty easy to see through these cheap ploys, and they feel disingenuous. Setting up a static page on a social networking site actually makes it look even more static, not at all interactive. Just by being in MySpace, or having a Twitter feed or putting the odd video up on YouTube doesn’t make a media organisation more interactive if you don’t actually interact.

Publishing on an interactive platform is still just publishing. What happens when people ask your ‘content’ questions, and there isn’t a human being there to answer? Well, at the very least, nothing happens. People get bored and go away. But, sometimes bad things happen, especially when you’re not particularly clueful with your approach and don’t understand the space. If you want community and participation, be ready to participate.

Exactly.  If you are going to do it, do it right.  If you aren’t truly committed to it, stay away.

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