I caught up with Luke Bozier this week. He’s the managing director of Red Narrative, the agency that is advising Dr Ashraf Ghani, a leading contender to replace President Karzai in August’s presidential election in Afghanistan, on social media strategy.

It’s a long post. But I make no apologies. Bozier’s frontline views on the Labour party, the Afghan election, LabourList and the forthcoming UK General Election are well worth reading.

Thanks to Mark Hanson for the introduction.

Q. The Red Narrative brand implies a left of centre leaning. What’s your background?

I’ve been a Labour member for just under three years. I previously worked at Labour HQ, advising Tony Blair and the wider party on strategic online communication, and since then for other centre-left politicians here and abroad.

I believe in the [Labour] party’s values, of society looking after everybody, and I want my work to help socially-minded politicians around the world to be able to communicate effectively.

Q. There are two prongs to your strategy for Dr Ashraf Ghani: raising awareness and raising funds? Can you describe how it will be delivered?

A. Raising awareness by running the best website of the whole election. Our content is updated daily, is available in English and the two local Afghan languages. We issue regular press releases via an email group of journalists. We also have a large list of email subscribers, mainly Afghans from around the world and in the country. On top of this, we send regular messages to our Facebook groups, and use Twitter to spread the word.

Donations are solicited through the website, and have so far been very successful (in the tens of thousands of US dollars). Anyone with a credit or debit card can log on to the site and make a donation in just a few minutes.

Q. How will you measure success of your campaign for Dr Ashraf Ghani beyond a successful election win?

A. I hope Dr Ashraf Ghani will win the election and if so the group of supporters we have created online can then be channelled into raising awareness of issues inside Afghanistan, and encouraged to take action themselves. Often when people leave their home country it’s hard to stay connected to the national political scene – we hope that through the Internet, and with this campaign, we have inspired the younger Afghans abroad to take an interest in the politics of their country at this turning point in their history.

Equally, whoever is running Afghanistan after August, they need to be kept honest; the Internet is perfect for this. I hope that the people that have been inspired by the Dr Ashraf Ghani campaign feel that they can organise online to promote political developments in the country and ensure that the government is as transparent and efficient as possible.

Q. How does Red Narrative win clients and can tell us about a campaign that you are proud of?

A. I personally meet a lot of politicians and people working for politicians and people running for office. With the success of the Obama campaign last year, the vast majority of people either seeking or already in public office now recognise that the Internet and new media are crucial parts of any communication or campaign strategy, so to some extent my work is already done.

Red Narrative is also pro-active in lobbying certain politicians or groups of politicians to consider carrying out specific projects which are of benefit to them, and then we work with them if they are interested.

A campaign I’m proud of – tough question. I’ve worked on so many interesting projects, from the first online consultation, to web-based inter-cultural dialogue programmes, to putting Tony Blair on YouTube and now helping Afghanistan to run modern campaigns in the post-Taliban era. I’ve also done a lot of domestic work with little-known politicians who are working hard for the people in their constituencies.

I wouldn’t want to single out one campaign, but the Dr Ashraf Ghani for President campaign is certainly the most though-provoking, and the one which could have the largest potential impact on a nation and society.

Q. What’s your view of  the LabourList project?

A. Initially I was sceptical, and Derek Draper is a divisive figure. But before he left, and to his credit, he succeeded in getting the whole Labour community to recognise it as a viable outlet and place for internal dialogue. Politicians and activists from across the board have written on a plethora of subjects there, and it’s something to applaud. Alex Smith is doing a great job in keeping it going, and there are some interesting developments since he took over, such as the partnership with the Huffington Post.

However, LabourList’s big drawback is that it is just an internal talking post. I know Derek initially saw it as something wider, something that would engage “millions” of non-political British folk. I don’t think it’s the platform for that, and it’s sad that Labour as the governing party hasn’t yet come up with that kind of national political forum. But as a Labour platform, I think it’s great.

Q. What impact do you expect social media to have on the 2010 UK election?

A. I’m sure there will be a tangible impact, but not as profound as I would like. Unfortunately the political system in Great Britain is not one which will facilitate a ground-breaking, election-winning online/social media campaign such as the Obama campaign. Our system doesn’t allow insurgent candidates to come out of nowhere and take the stage, which means that the Internet’s ability to rally hundreds of thousands of people around an “underdog” candidate are redundant here. That’s not to say that parties shouldn’t take it seriously, and I hope Labour puts social media and e-campaigning more central to its strategy and structure as an organisation.

I think the space where the biggest potential for social media to impact the election is on its coverage and analysis. The blogosphere (and Twittersphere) will be alive from the second Gordon calls the election (in fact, I would like to see him announce it in an innovative way – maybe he could send a Twitter message to the Queen: “@QEII Your Majesty, I am now advising you to dissolve Parliament and call a general election. Cheers, your Prime Minister #ge2010″ – only 120 chars!).

There’s still a good chance that Parliament will be hung, which will provide fodder to the bloggers and Twits to create online drama. I’m sure we will see Tweets and blogs coming from result announcements all across the country, some of which will be dramatic, in the same way as the Michael Portillo 1997 loss was dramatic; this time they will be captured and uploaded to YouTube and Twitter.