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Ghosts In The Blogosphere
Although moving at glacial speed, the fog is slowly lifting from many Web 2.0 naysayers and they are finally acquiescing that this “blogosphere thing” is not going away. These people were like smokers who insisted smoking was fine as they hacked up a lung leaving a spray of spit in your face. My experience is that many of these people had achieved business success in a day when there was no such thing as the blogosphere, memos were sent around in yellow envelopes and dinosaurs roamed the earth. Their previous success is their biggest liability in today’s Web 2.0 world, because their over-inflated egos have blinded their ability to recognize that what worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today because the world has changed.
Up until recently, if my agency suggested this Web 2.0 naysayer write a blog as part of his or her company’s overall PR strategy, we would usually hear an arrogant chuckle followed by something like “over my dead body.” More recently, however, we have seen a shift. We now hear “ok, but someone else can write it” or even worse “ok, but you guys can write it.” Ummmm…homey don’t think so. Having someone else write your blog is called ghost blogging and as far as I’m concerned it’s as wrong as faking you have cancer so people will send you money. Why? Because it is deceitful and at it’s very core sits a big, fat, hairy lie.
“Ghost writing” is something that has been going on in the traditional publishing world since the day those naysayers were able to smoke in their offices. Nobody really cared. Ghost blogging is a completely different thing. In a Web 2.0 world the single most important attribute is authenticity. Through a blog, a blogger’s perspective, personality, tone and voice needs needs to emerge. This cannot happen through a ghost blogger. And having someone else blog for you is like having someone dress up like you to go work in an orphanage for a photo opp while you vacation in the Amalfi coast. It just wreaks of artificial scum and is a scam waiting to be exposed….and exposed it will be. If the blogosphere smells a rat, they will shoot is for all the world to read. Even traditional media know better. Two years ago, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann mocked Congressman Tom Delay for ghost blogging and the blogosphere spread the story like wildfire.
As PR and marketing peeps, we need to stand united as Web 2.0 Ghostbusters and never support a ghost blogging strategy. I can tell in a nanosecond if a prospect is someone I want to work with based on how they respond to push back on ghost blogging. I believe my personal reputation, my agency’s reputation, and the PR industry’s reputation would be at risk if I were to ever knowingly promote a ghost blog.
What are your thoughts on ghosts in the blogosphere?
January 18th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Nice post Kel… ghost blogging reminds me of all the cars in DC parking lots that suddenly started sporting Obama bumperstickers — AFTER the election!
I think it depends on authenticity and transparency. For a larger company, having various authors create the ‘voice’ of the company works OK, as long as they are insiders or truly knowledgeable enough to represent the company. After all, a corporation is just a proxy for a person anyway, and the brand of the company is not just that of one individual.
What matters to me is transparency – in each post it should be clear who is creating the content and what is their authority or affiliation with the corporation. That way, the information can be interpreted with context.
In other words, true ghosts aren’t transparent!
Mark
January 18th, 2009 at 11:27 am
manfmnantucket, i agree transparency is critical. thanks for pointing it out. i think it’s great if multiple peeps blog on behalf of a company. i think this brings a 360 degree perspective to multiple dimensions of a brand. however, you are 100% correct in that it should be clear who is authoring each post. unfortunately, this is usually where the ghosts fly out of the closet and it’s frightening.
January 18th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Kel-
Clearly having someone else write a blog for me is not an option. Alas, I don’t have great writing skills like you do. It’s easy for me to see how regular blogging could go a long way to building and protecting my brand. What to do when the writing voice just isn’t there?
January 18th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
BTW, came here from you tweet.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
kathleen, my experience is never that the voice isn’t there. i always have something to say! however, i will sometimes struggle with topics because i always try to bring a fresh perspective to it. not sure my writing “skills” are better than anyone else’s. i think i just say it like i feel it versus delivering it in a safe, professional framework. i say go for it girl!
January 18th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I agree that the vision for the company MUST come from leaders of the company. I think that people look to hear it from the source, so to speak. It breeds confidence and builds the relationship between blogger and reader, company and client. Ghost blogging simply communicates they don’t *really* care. And I think everyone has had just about enough of that!
January 19th, 2009 at 10:07 am
karen, you said it girlfriend!
January 21st, 2009 at 2:55 pm
If the thoughts are open and genuine, I don’t much care who actually writes it. There are different degrees of openness, and anything is better than closed. Heck, do you think Obama will write anything in the blogosphere? But, we will all hail his openness.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:25 pm
ben, that is the first time i have heard that perspective. appreciate your honesty. i bet obama will be the first prez to post in the blogosphere. whether he writes it or not depends on who advises him. hopefully that won’t involve cheney or rove.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
We actually just had this discussion in my PR class this week- we learned a/b ghostwriting and then shared our opinions on it. There are many arenas where ghostwriting is acceptable (like in speech writing for presidents like Ben talked about above), but the blogosphere is just not one of the places ghostwriting is ok.
I agree with your stance of being “ghostbusters”! I personally agree with the idea that transparency is key if there is ghostwriting is going on- no reader should be deceived and no one should be represented (or blogged for) as intelligent, clever, or as having certain ideas who is actually not those things…I’ll share this post with my classmates-thanks!
January 30th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
[...] I comment on “Ghosts in the Blogosphere” by Kel Kelly – January 30, [...]
January 30th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
cara, thanks so much for your comment. i’m curious as to where you go to college. having discussions around ghost blogging is so bleeding edge and not something most pr curriculum is covering. love your thoughts. thanks for sharing. hope to hear from you again.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Hi Kel, Cara goes to Clemson University. I’m her professor, here to see her comment – part of class requirements
I’m all for Ghostbusting, too. We talk a lot in class about how one questionable PR action adds up to damage the entire profession. It seems students get it… I’m so proud of Cara’s comment!!!
January 30th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Mihaela, you should be proud of Cara’s comments! Good for Clemson for covering such an “in the moment” topic within the pr world. says a lot about your program. today’s pr students have an exceptional opportunity to bring their web 2.0 savvy (facebook, blogging, etc.) into an industry where many pr agencies are still struggling to figure it all out. good stuff all around. i taught “marketing for entrepreneurs” in babson college’s mba program for five years. would you believe they didn’t even offer a pr class?! classes like yours will arm graduating students with a real world perspective on how to add value in an ever-changing communications environment. rock on!
January 31st, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Thanks Kel! (and thanks Dr. V for replying for me
). I’m looking forward to continuing reading your blog.
p.s.
Dr. V is really the source of this bleeding edge pr stuff at Clemson!
January 31st, 2009 at 8:16 pm
cara, well then stick close to dr v! too many programs are stuck in old school public relations and it is handicapping students. the pr industry needs to evolve in a big way. traditional agencies are killing the overall perception of our industry. web 2.0 savvy pr grads can help them evolve. look forward to hearing from you again. peace out.
February 1st, 2009 at 6:01 pm
[...] social media. But, one thing I do know is that transparency is key. Kel Kelly posted a piece called “Ghost’s in the Blogosphere” on her blog and although I don’t think her advice is new, it is nonetheless accurate. The idea of [...]
December 14th, 2009 at 11:37 am
[...] Ghosts in the Blogosphere by Kel Kelly on the Kel Kelly [...]