Obama should become more like British politician John Prescott.

In a week when Obama disclosed that he has never sent a tweet in his life, despite having over 2million followers, John Prescott’s web presence should be lauded.

Like him or loath him, in a world where PR tries to control every message, Prescott is keeping it real. His views are his own, his principles are there for all to see and it is this honesty that is part of his charisma.

You might not like his views on Unions etc but if the Tories win the next election, then we will go back to a day when Britain was run by old Etonians, who have some strange views on Europe and anywhere north of Luton.

The rest of the political world should be looking at the approach of John Prescott to social media. As there are some easy wins here. Especially on blogger engagement.

I am sure John would say that he’s not a techy, and I can see ways in which he can make better use of social media tools. (Get on Posterous or Tumblr John! They are great easily for sharing information), but this technical skill matters not.

What works for John is that he can shoot from the hip and by and large be on message. Social media is perfect for politicians who feel able to do that.

John is combative and also interacts with his audience and retweets things he agrees with.

His blogging is insightful and you warm to the guy because he makes statements that he believes in, whether you agree with him or not.

I used to work with a chap who was one of Prescott’s special advisers, Tony Sophoclides, and he told me what a genuinely great guy John is. At the time I didn’t believe him.

Bland political figures are ruining politics and feeding groups such as the BNP, so more open politicians are needed.

Thanks to social media you can now get up close and personal to politicians in a way in which you couldn’t before. In my view all politicians should follow the Prescott model – starting with Obama.

The Blog Paper is a new online publication with a difference: it aims to print the best postings every month in a bona fide publication. It is very nearly a brilliant idea.

I love its premise of taking the best content from the Blogosphere and turning it into a magazine.

Some might say the concept of printing the very best blogs goes against the blogosphere’s bedrock principles of immediacy and shareability and ‘social networking’. Others will say that by taking the publication into print, the Blog Paper is paradoxically mirroring the media that ‘online’ is supposed to replace and the content will be ‘old news’ by the time the publication hits the streets.

However, while I recognise this argument, I really like the concept. Call me old fashioned, but I like to read from good old paper. In this intermediate period, between the predicted demise of printed publications and the time when we will all own handheld electronic reading devices, the Blog Paper has a great proposition.

If The Blog Paper is successful in printing its first edition, it will also expose thousands of people to blogs new content.

So, why is it not a brilliant idea? It is good, but not brilliant. Well, the publication is only available in London. I know start up costs will be tight, but I am sure someone somewhere would distribute it in Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow too.

It would also nudge closer to brilliance if uploading onto this site was easier. As it stands I think it takes a lot longer than I am used to with Posterous, RSS Feeds or the WordPress publicise tool, which lets you email content. If this glitch was improved upon then I think the site would become incredibly popular.

I hope the Blog Paper does well. I can’t wait to see its first printed edition! Maybe someone will post one to me?

http://www.theblogpaper.co.uk

Love Serge Gainsbourg. Elisa is a fine piece of music. If you can play this then not only is Posterous brilliant, but my Blackberry is a cut above. If the quality is too low then the Blackberry is going back to the shop. And if you can’t read music. Then hard luck….

Posted via email from jamescrawford’s posterous

Posted via email from jamescrawford’s posterous