UK politicians haven't got it quite right when using social media yet. That's not because they haven't got all the tools but they haven't quite got how to talk to people and how people want to interact with them.

Video is a really good example. All of us have grown up in the TV-era and think of moving pictures as a show with a host, special effects and big name guests. However the new media era means any of us can produce moving pictures on a simple camcorder or our mobile phone.

On the campaign trail we should see video as a way of telling an audience something that may be more appropriate than putting it in text or more efficent than going to see all our audience members individually or as groups. We just have to be clear and succinct. Even better than that we can look REAL, so that voters, canvassers etc feel as though we're all almost normal human beings and we're in this together.

Barack Obamha's campaign manager, David Plouffe has produced this short video trying to fill campaign workers in on the thinking behind the campaign strategy. Its not well lit, the lighting isn't great but I get the impression he's an OK guy who is making the effort to tell me what's going on. It just feels better than a newsletter. How I feel is the most crucial element of successful communication.