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Pat Cleary, The Beltway Blogfather

Pat Cleary was one of the first Beltway bloggers I met after launching this site nearly two years ago. His official title is senior vice president of communications at the National Association of Manufacturers, but everyone who walks in Washington blog circles knows him as the "blogger-in-chief."

Cleary gave himself that name sometime after launching The Manufacturers' Blog (since renamed ShopFloor) in November 2004, but "Beltway blogfather" might be a more apt description. Cleary's online influence has extended far beyond NAM headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Although he calls himself the "oldest blogger on earth," Cleary ranks among the early adopters of blogging in the Luddite-heavy Washington policy corridor, and he has preached the power of the blog at every opportunity. In March, for instance, Cleary was among the featured speakers at the annual Politics Online Conference, and last fall he appeared at a blog conference hosted by RightClick Strategies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

No one inside the Beltway, least of all me, knows better than Cleary the potential of blogs and other new media to shape public policy. That's why I featured his insights at length, and suggested that we photograph him, in January 2006 when I wrote about "The Rise Of Blogs" for National Journal magazine.

So I wasn't surprised this morning when I read this at ShopFloor: "After 10 great years here at the NAM, the blogger-in-chief will be packing up the saddle bags and heading a few blocks away to join Fleishman-Hillard as director of digital public affairs."

The job seems made just for Cleary. He has done wonders in bringing NAM into the Web 2.0 era, and now he will be trying to perform those same wonders for Fleishman-Hillard's public affairs clients. In his own words, Cleary will be "doing online advocacy and corporate positioning in the association world and the manufacturing sector."

Other PR shops with Washington branches have been moving in that direction.

In 2005, RedState co-founder Mike Krempasky joined Edelman to work for clients such as Wal-Mart. A few months later, Edelman and NAM co-hosted a blog seminar. And a consultancy called Issue Dynamics Inc. has its own "blogger relations" unit.

With Cleary on the job and preaching the digital gospel full time as of next month, Washington's policy wonks could become much more interested in blogging and other new media very quickly.

Posted by Danny | 11:13 AM

Comments

You may like to know that Australia's 107-year-old Olive Riley is the world's oldest blogger. Her blog is www.AllAboutOlive.com.au

I wrote about her in The World's First Multi-National e-Book: http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/olive_riley.htm

Best wishes, Eric Shackle(in Sydney, Australia).
Author, The World's First Multi-National e-Book.
http://bdb.co.za/shackle

Eric Shackle | 05.13.07 07:16 AM

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