I would love to go on a trip like this to the USA for political bloggers. I thought it was all so interesting that I have published the article in full. If ConservativeHome need a female blogger to help advise during the trip to Australia, I could check my diary…..

Bloggers behind two of the UK’s most popular political websites are to travel to the US to learn successful campaigning and fundraising strategies from their American counterparts.

Mark Hanson, PR consultant and strategist for the LabourHome website, is travelling to the US in mid-August to meet bloggers, campaign groups and politicians who have had much broader success in mobilising voters and raising funds than their UK counterparts.

Sam Coates, (pic) a blogger for ConservativeHome.com, is also set to travel to the US to meet with bloggers and politicians based in Washington.

“Being in opposition forces you to innovate,” Mr Coates said.

“So in the US, libertarians are very big on the internet and in the UK, it explains why LabourHome hasn’t taken off.”

In September, the ConservativeHome team is due to advise the Australian prime minister, John Howard, on his new media campaign for the country’s forthcoming general election.

LabourHome is a collaborative group political blog. The site is independent of the Labour Party but influential in informing MPs and campaign groups about online tools and campaign platforms.

Mr Hanson is thought to be looking to US websites such as media monitoring organisation mediamatters.org, political marketing think tank the New Politics Institute and the political blog MyDD, whose founder, Jerome Armstrong, was a consultant on Howard Dean’s Democratic presidential campaign in 2004.

He said liberal blogging was extremely active in the US but had still not matured in the UK. He put the UK’s political blog culture at two or three years behind the US.

Politicians’ attempts to use new social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter have been much derided for being superficial, and for not meaningfully engaging with users.

“Many politicians just don’t grasp the technology, and are worried about losing control of what they say. They need to think ‘who is it I’m trying to reach?’,” Mr Hanson said.

He added that it was not enough to have a profile on a networking site that is not maintained.

He cited Liberal Democrat MP Steve Webb, who is using Facebook to talk to 18-21 year-olds, helping to inform party policy, as an example of how to use networking sites.

LabourHome is exploring how US campaign sites have used publicly-editable pages called wikis, feedback systems and targeted email communication.

US sites such as MoveOn.org have also initiated small-scale online fundraising, and successfully matched volunteers with localised duties during a campaign, such as reporting voter turnout or publishing photos.

LabourHome is working with Labour Party deputy leadership candidate Hilary Benn MP to run online discussions with his constituents using Skype, the internet telephony service.