Momus, writing in Wired News, wonders whether there are how ghost bloggers. Alas, dear Mobus, there are. There are even people who make a business of ghost blogging.
There are flaks and others out there who think that’s not obvious. Isn’t that silly?
Blogging With a Wooden Tongue
BL Ochman | November 29, 2005 | Permanent Link | Comments (4) | TrackBack (
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It may not be obvious at first, but hired bloggers or ghost bloggers will be obvious in the short term.
No company or person is perfect. If you blog positively about a company too long it’s because you are paid to, or you just don’t know what you are talking about.
Ghost writing in PR (for printed and online media columns, etc.) is accepted. The goal is simply to get information out. But, because blogs are more personal and have potential for interaction, ghost blogging should be asin.
Mike
What, exactly, is the difference between having a ghostwriter help you with your memoirs and having a ghostwriter help you with your blog? You seem to be assuming that ghost bloggers will by definition be 1) incompetent and 2) unfamiliar with the personality of the individual or business on whose behalf they’re blogging.
I’m not about to tell you who I blog for (it’s called a Non-Disclosure Agreement), but I can tell you that I was hired because I have appropriate expertise as well as writing skills. I don’t blog about how wonderful the company is, but about subjects of interest to the company’s prospective clients, and the blog is getting the company in question positive media attention. (The media never wants to hear about how wonderful your company is anyway.)
Good ghostwriters work to get inside the heads of their clients and to help them express themselves more clearly than they could on their own. The problem arises when companies either hire people to do the wrong things or hire the wrong people.
So the clients you ghost for want to appear to be part of the conversation but don’t have time to blog. Maybe blogging is not for them then!
I coach clients on blogging and help them find their voice and build their audience. I also suggest topics they might address.
But I don’t WRITE their posts. There is a difference between coaching, or even editing, and ghost writing.
If you’re an expert and the author of the posts, your name should be on the blog. Same way it’s done at Stonyfield Farms.
You can make a case for ghost blogging — as Ms. Goetsch does. But, that’s only if you see blogging as subtly promoting your company, acting as an advisor the way a sales engineer or related sales person would.
You are not selling, but raising issues customers and prospects are interested in.
However, if you see blogs as a way to show off a company’s personality, make the company less cold, give it a level of genuinness (if that’s a word), then you do not ghost blog.
Blogs started out as one thing, and are evolving. Like a lot of terms, the definition will change and be viewed differently, depending who you are.
For example, public (or media) relations can be viewed differently. Wasn’t there a car company (Toyota?) that talked with a publisher (Conde Nast?) about encouraging its editors to include more references to the lines of cars and trucks some months ago? Some may see that as PR. Most don’t.
Ghost blogging will be here and grow. Unfortunately, that will hurt the efforts and goals of true bloggers.
Mike