A couple of top writers – Iain Dale, Iain Martin and the not-called-Iain Alan Cochrane have all written about the poor state of the Conservative Party in Scotland in the run-up to the 2010 General Election and it’s got me wondering if they could boost their funds, membership and ultimately election results by embracing social media.

I’ve already said that I think there will be a poor use of social media in politics in 2010 but that doesn’t mean parties shouldn’t be trying. However social media in itself can’t change anything. Yes, it’s a communication tool, but it’s also a way to find out the problems you have with your product – the question then is this: do you change your product or just carry on regardless?

For the Tories in Scotland, it’s quite simple what the issues are: her. And the following of the English party line.

First things first: her. Make no mistake about it, Thatcher is still a hated name north of the border – and she wasn’t that popular to start with. Other parts of the UK may find her a hero for (along with Reagan) moving politics so far to the right that the only way the likes of Labour could return to power was by being just-less to the right, but in Scotland (despite bringing in home ownership for the masses) she’s hated. It’s not just because the Poll Tax came in a year early, she is despised as an entity and I know plenty of people who have said that on the day she dies, they’re off to the pub to celebrate.

So there’s that. Then there’s the fact that Team Cameron is seen as very English, but how does that stop the Scottish Tory Party being successful?

According to the aforementioned articles, one of the problems is that the Scottish party is following London dictats. Now that may make sense – the Tories really don’t want to blow this election down south as that’s where will win it for them – but it does them no favours here and this is the biggest problem: in Scotland, people want to hear about Scottish issues. In other words the party should concentrate more on the Scottish part of the name and less on the Unionist part. After all, Scotland is pretty much on an election footing for the next 18 months now and they need to look at Holyrood as well.

What they should do is get every PPC blogging immediately (Ruth Davidson and Ross Thomson are amongst those already doing it) and on sites leaving comments, doing YouTube videos (all of it backed with some SEO strategy). A little bit of Twitter too wouldn’t do any harm. They should also set up bookmarklets, offer free wifi from their offices, be as open as possible, answer q&as through their sites, though Facebook I would avoid, except for genuine personal use. I’d get an app out there for platforms like  iPhone/Android/Ovi/Blackberry that had the following:

• list of PPCs, councillors for Scotland
• GPS use so the app can say who your local tories are
• Historical pieces talking about famous Tories from the past in the area
• GPS enabled maps showing polling stations
• Page showing the latest updates from Tory PPCs, councillors and so on
• A button allowing for donations to the (local) party. And yes, they should take PayPal.
• Phone number you can call for more info
• Twice-daily updated page showing the latest controversial story in the media involing the Conservatives – but this page would encourage you to leave a comment, sticking up for the Tories.

If nothing else, having a stronger online presence talking about the local issues would allow some counter to the accusations of ‘all you do is follow the English party line’ jibes and you could point out that you are talking about both.

Note that doing all of the above (none of which is particularly groundbreaking in my opinion) still allows you to follow the English whip, it’s just a bit of effort which adds to what’s already being done.

As for what all of the political parties should be doing for the election with social media… well, that’s a post for later in the week.