Kristin Halvorsen, leader of Socialistisk Venstre (The Socialist Left Party) in Norway launched a blog in October 2004. But the interactive format of the blog apparently was too much work for Halvorsen who hasn’t posted anything on the blog since March 30. Many of her readers critize her from being absent on her own blog.
– This was a test. It turned out that the blog became too time consuming for me over time, Kristin Halvorsen tells Dagbladet.
– This is a culture where people communicate with each other several times a day and that’s not possible for me. It didn’t help that others replied for me, she said, meaning that she didn’t wish that others would reply in her name.
I don’t think you should be too hard on politicians who experiment with this new medium and fail. Her ambition to interact more with voters seemed to be honest. However, when you come to a point where you realize that you don’t have time to blog, you should really consider killing your blog altogether. Why? Well, basically for just one reason. Halvorsen’s blog is ranked #2 on Google when you search for her name and you wouldn’t want a web page full of negative comments about yourself be ranked that high if you are a top politician. Either you continue with the blog, or kill it.