Comments on: Ghostwritten blogs: wrong or right?

By: Cool stuff – December 14, 2009 — Danny Whatmough.com

Cool stuff – December 14, 2009 — Danny Whatmough.com — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:51:51 +0000

[...] Ghostwritten blogs: wrong or right? [...]

By: Twitted by mattsingley

Twitted by mattsingley — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:52:20 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by mattsingley [...]

By: Gabriele Cucinella

Gabriele Cucinella — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:50:39 +0000

That’s one of the great questions about social media.
Ghost writing is obviously unfair, if intended as writing something faking your identity. I think that’s the key, agencies can definitely run company blogs, as long as they do it transparently, but it’s sure that companies must be part of the game. Agencies can help brands building a strategy, and mnaging the conversation with their customers, while companies must join the conversation actively, supporting agencies to build contents and value.

By: OMB

OMB — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:05:39 +0000

Corporate blogs are there for several reasons. Firstly, to demonstrate that “we’re interacting with our clients” and obviously, to generate leads and ultimately “sales,” as well as supporting the reputation of the brand. A lot of businesses still don’t get blogs and see them solely as a sales channel (telling the audience, rather than talking with them)and so unless they have some marketing/PR experience, they need support to guide them through this maze.

That’s not saying someone has to write it for them. But there needs to be some hand-holding for those that think it’s a quick win when it could quite easily become a big loss – just look at some of the corporate blogs out there that just link back to product pages.

If it is ghost written, then it needs complete buy in from the client so that the “speak” is relevant and topical and fits the brand. It shouldn’t be just the PRs messaging speak.

Alternatively let the company write it but let the PR edit it to ensure it hits the right notes while holding firm to the clients “DNA” (to coin another post).

By: Terence Eden

Terence Eden — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:04:08 +0000

Are people mature enough to deal with dissenting or controversial opinion? I’d say not. From that golfer who is in the news, to the pop star who makes an unpopular comment – they all get castigated by the public (or the press) for normal human transgressions.

If you read a CEO’s blog (or twitter stream) and he says something “off message” – will your first action be to twitter “OMG! CEO says his company cocked up!” and them dump all your stock? What does that do for the brand and reputation of the company?

In a reasonable and mature environment, we’d realise that (big) businesses are controlled by individuals. That they don’t all sing from the same (corporate) hymn sheet. That the idle gossip between two senior execs won’t negatively affect the share price.

For a small to medium company – it makes sense to run your own blog IF YOU’RE GOOD AT BLOGGING. You may be the best sprocket manufacturer in the country – but that’s no guarantee you can write well or effectively engage online.

If you’re a big company – the stakes are too high to risk having individuals blog without going through layers of legal, regulatory, and PR teams.

In an ideal world we’d all be skilled enough at blogging *and* skilled enough at reading blogs. Until that day, it may be best to leave it to the professionals.

T
(My views are most certainly my own and in no way reflect the opinions, thoughts or desires of any other person, company, legal entity, or imaginary creature)

By: PaulieA

PaulieA — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:50:25 +0000

I agree with Danny on this. As a PR/comms/digital person, helping clients comes in a variety of guises and yes, occasionally that might mean writing a blog post. Ghost-blogging is obviously not best practice, but the idea that it is ‘wrong’ to do so just doesn’t make sense to me.

And I’m not sure I agree that the ghosting of other materials – speeches, presentations, quotes etc – is wrong either. CEOs/MDs are busy running businesses and employ internal and external communications professionals to amongst other things, write copy and draft speeches.

By: B2B social media: a long road but worth the trip | NevilleHobson.com

B2B social media: a long road but worth the trip | NevilleHobson.com — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:58:01 +0000

[...] some passionate discussion away from the event including by Stuart Bruce, who was there, and Vikki Chowney. It’s a topic that undoubtedly will continue to draw passionate opinion, and on which there’s [...]

By: Ghost blogging: Just don’t do it

Ghost blogging: Just don’t do it — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:44:21 +0000

[...] huddle) with some good arguments about ghost blogging, plus Vikki Chowney’s asking the question: Ghostwritten blogs: wrong or right?For the record, here’s what I think. There’s nothing inherently wrong with ghost blogging when [...]

By: Ghost blogging: Just don’t do it | NevilleHobson.com

Ghost blogging: Just don’t do it | NevilleHobson.com — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:48:46 +0000

[...] So I’ve been reading a post by Stuart Bruce (who was at the huddle) with some good arguments about ghost blogging, plus Vikki Chowney’s asking the question: Ghostwritten blogs: wrong or right? [...]

By: SImon Collister

SImon Collister — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:39:19 +0000

Yeah – of course it’s very bad. The aegument whill go that PR types ghost copy all the time, for client by-lined articles; CEO quotes for press releases; speech etc. But this isn;t an excuse – we need to stop ghosting this stuff as well. Ghosting was always wrong, but tolerated. Now, no more.

Even more weirdly, the CIPR’s social media guidelines also declared ghost-blogging illegal. IMO they’ve zealously interpreted the fair trading EU directive… I blogged it here: http://www.simoncollister.com/simonsays/2009/01/ghost-blogging-is-illegal-says-cipr.html