Greetings (and Ghostblogging Ethics)
Our newsletter, the Firm Voice, has taken on new life – and become an open forum – in the form of a blog. On Wednesdays (mostly but not exclusively), we’ll take a forward look at emerging trends and other developments affecting our industry. This isn’t a re-hash of stuff you can find elsewhere; rather, we’ll offer original insights that will spark creative thinking, make you look smart in front of your clients (or boss), and help you craft effective communications that inform, intrigue, and delight your audiences.
In addition, the Firm Voice blog will add value by aggregating news items you may have missed; reporting on academic research in fields like psychology, media studies, and sociology; providing insightful thinking on the day’s events; and providing easy access to resources for further study. Topic areas we’re considering include social media,consumer trends, corporate communications, emerging technology, regulatory changes, global PR trends, generational issues, social trends impacting communications, and trends affecting small businesses.
One issue at the cutting edge of the profession in the age of social media is ghost-blogging and ghost-tweeting. Is it ethical for a client to hire an independent third-party to write a blog or tweets without revealing this fact to readers? It’s a grey area that is beginning to inspire considerable discussion. Some commentators have sought to come up with ethical guideposts. According to one PR website, “Ghostblogging for a corporate-aligned but PERSONAL blog is not ethical. However, ghostblogging for a CORPORATE blog is no more unethical than drafting a piece for the company newsletter, especially since the final draft would need to be approved by a client representative.”
Susan Cartier Liebel on the Diva marketing blog offers a much looser take on the ethics of ghost blogging and tweeting, focusing on the ultimate outcome for both customers and the brand: “Whether social media is outsourced or not, what matters is the end result to the customer. If the goal is to facilitate discussion, improvement of the product or service or quick easy access to ‘someone’ who can resolve a problem, I don’t care if it is the president of the company, a designated CSR or the PR agency who is going to make sure the suggestions, complaints, promotions are handled properly from the customers perspective. What matters is the end result and the press for the company left in the wake of the interaction. Does it build or tear down the brand?”
We’re inclined to make some distinction between personal and corporate blogs when it comes to ghostblogging’s ethics, although we do believe the issue requires additional thought and study. Our Statement of Principles outlines our perspective on the issue of accuracy and transparency, online and off. In writing the new Firm Voice, we’ll adhere to these statements ourselves.
We’re proud to disclose that we’re writing the new Firm Voice in collaboration with Dr. Seth Schulman, an experienced business writer, former Research Associate at the Harvard Business School, and consumer trends consultant to several leading national advertising agencies. Seth earned his Ph. D. in cultural history from Brown University and has spent years thinking about media, culture, and communications. The new Firm Voice is a collaborative venture that will allow us to combine the Council’s PR expertise with a fresh perspective and compelling research and writing. We hope you enjoy what you read, and please make sure to share your opinions with us!
- In: Ethics, Ghostblogging, Transparency
Congrats on the new format. Important topic and thanks for the conversation starter. Best, Leslie Gaines-Ross, Weber Shandwick
Welcome, Firm Voice!
The ghostblogging debate must also factor the subsets of the type of corporate blogs (some of which are still very “personal” in sharing the opinions of one or several of an organization’s leaders).
Also, the debate must eventually migrate focus from the “how” (to ghost or not to ghost), but the “why” (are we ghosting because we’re under-resourced, or because we’re trying to make the original author appear more authoritative?).
Perspectives on this will be interesting, for sure.
Thanks for your comment, J.D. I think this is a general topic that will resurface more than once on this blog. It has certainly generated heated discussion elsewhere, which tells me we are still in the early stages of this debate.
Speech-writers have put words in people’s mouths for years without attribution. Everyone has advisors and counselors that they rely upon for communication help. However, in the social media game, success comes from authenticity and some things just can’t be faked. I expect the grey lines of what “is” or “is not” appropriate ghostblogging/tweeting will become darker as this new media world matures. Thanks for spotlighting the issue!
Kathy – Thanks for the shout out to the Diva Marketing post on transparency, as well as for continuing this important conversation. The responses that John Cass & I got, from about 40 marketing/PR people on the subject, surprised me in terms of the extent of the shades of gray.
My personal concern is not only the ethical issue of ghost blogging/tweeting but from a brand promise/value perspective. What happens if a ‘relationship’ (not a 1 time response to a customer service question as Susan refers to in her comment) is built overtime with someone you assumed to be an employee of the brand or even more disheartening, a specific person, and you find the agency or a freelance social media content writer was the voice? Does it it devalue the brand? Would you trust the company or the product? It seems to me that ocial media grows more complex as we turn it into a messaging channel versus a ‘conversation’ between people.
Toby: I agree that social media is increasingly complex, as are brand relationships. As a customer, I’m open to different connections, or ‘relationships’, with a product or service as long as the conversation is constructive, and authorized.
J.D.’s point about “why” is a critical consideration to make, and aligns with Toby’s points about brand promise and value. As the primary owners of the conversation, we are responsible for the integrity of the communications stream; to that end, we must be honest with ourselves about what the goals of a blog are, and thus what the content and contribution strategy should be. Represent with honesty and integrity, and you can’t go wrong.
@Kevin – love the way you put it so simply and elegantly!
Good (re)start on the Voice. Gonna keep doing the polls?
Also, re: ‘ghosts’, wanted to mention that WOMMA’s Code/Guide is solid and aligned with FTC requirements.
Thanks, Ryan: WOMMA is indeed a very good resource in this area. As for polling, we will continue to do our usual member surveys, but unrelated to Firm Voice. Of course, I would expect you’ll see some of those data points integrated into certain blog posts over time.
I don’t see any difference between ghostblogging and speech-writing. Not every executive who has something important to communicate knows how to say it. Yes, blogs and social media are “personal” but hiring a writer to help you say it right isn’t impersonal. At worst, a ghostwriter is playing Cyrano de Bergerac to a CEO’s Christian de Neuvillette.
For all the high-minded talk about “transparency,” you’d think blogs were holy writ!
I once hosted a slugfest on this issue with Debbie Weil at IAOCblog. You might find it interesting: http://www.iaocblog.com/blog/_archives/2006/9/18/2337404.html
Morty
I found this post very interesting since in our social media class we have talked about this issue several times, and the opinions among students are varied. Personally, I think if it is a corporate blog, there is not as big of an issue as if it is a personal one. If the blogs shares news and bug themes of the company anyone can do it. Nevertheless, if someone is sharing thoughts, opinions, and comments on behalf of someone else seems an unethical matter. I believe that these types of behaviors will be condemned by the readers if they are found out, and at the end the people who will lose credibility are those ones who are misusing social media and the different platforms.
I really don’t think ethics comes into it, re: ghost blogging, at least, not significantly. Books, articles, press releases, speeches — they’ve all been written by someone else for decades. Some well-known authors do not write their own books, or not in entirety. Sometimes, entire chapters are written by editors or teams.
By personal blogs, I assume you mean CEO blogs? Again, for me not so much of an ethical issue. I think people love to hop on the transparency bandwagon but don’t really think it through in terms of practicality for every situation. And really, who honestly cares? There are so many other issues in communications to worry about the ethics. Sure, it would be nice to think it’s the “real” voice of the person. But a CEO with the level of visibility who would have the resources to have someone blog for him or her — that person is typically so managed in terms of their messaging, travel, appearances. Their communications people are just saying it as she/he would if she could. It just makes sense that they would also have help with their blogs. Blogging is an SEO tactic, not holy scripture. Shouldn’t be an issue.
Kathy: I really like this new format, mostly because it creates yet another opportunity for fellow members to interact on issues, trends, opportunities for our individuals firms as well as the agency business overall.
As it is for many other firms, our digital and social practice is growing. We’re finding clients asking us questions like this one — and many others. Thanks for giving us this forum to explore together so we can counsel better.
Greetings to Seth Schulman!
There is a third alternative a lot of people miss. It’s not either blog for yourself or hire a ghostblogger. The third alternative is what the Council has done: hire a journalist to blog the news, and let the principals comment-in or blog when they can.
We’ve produced successful newsblogs for CEOs and even journalists who don’t have much time to write for free. We hire a journalist to cover the news and they add the color commentary. The journalist is credited, so it’s transparent.
You can have all the benefits of daily blogging without the time commitment. All journalists and PR people should rejoice at this alternative, which helps keep our professions alive and vital.
STEVE O’KEEFE
Author, “Complete Guide to Internet Publicity”
Chief Operating Officer, SixEstate Communications
Congrats for the new Firm Voice. I do not think the ghost-blogging is a problem. The worst situation is the real blogger write untruths, lies and irresponsible information. Have you ever thought that?
Since 2004 as both a blogger and as an agency owner actively in the social media space (we conceived, launched and managed the Nokia Blogger Relations program) the question of ghost blogging has forever been posed to us. And our answer has always been the same.
“You can boast, but you can’t ghost.”
First, social media is based on the implicit trust between author and audience. It is not meant to be “advertising” (i.e. paid media) but it can in some cases appear to take the form of promotion, an area where the lines have always greyed. In a nutshell PR professionals have had a hard enough time throughout their careers with reporters and correspondents “never letting the facts get in the way of a good story.” We have had to defend the value PR brings to a company–how many times have we been asked about comparative media value of a story in the Wall Street Journal vs. an advertisement and we have always had to justify why something needs to be disclosed upfront vs. having to deal with the aftermath later. So when someone said “social media is trackable,” just like the time some genius decided the CPM model makes selling online advertising better understood vs. the direct marketing model that’s about the value of the lead and the customer, PR professionals jumped at the idea of supporting social media even though they were supporting media, not being social.
Second, social media was supposed to be about transparency. It is about the author being known, credible and attributable. When you add in transparency with trust, you get credibility. Imagine if the CEO of a public company was questioned on an earnings call, or at a conference, about a blog post or tweet that was written and posted by some ghost writer and the CEO whose name was on the post couldn’t even begin to articulate on the issues. Imagine how the spinning would begin. In talking about this I always think of the scene in Working Girl where Tess McGill is asked how she came up with the idea vs. Sigourney Weaver.
Third, and possibly most importantly, its okay to let someone else blog for your company. No one says it needs to be the C level executives as Robert Scobble and others have clearly become stars where they were or are, as trusted sources of information and perspective.
Picking up on Steve O’Keefe’s point, there is also nothing wrong with having the in-house reporter (who may be an outside) writing the posts, ala a newspaper writer of days gone by. Company blogs are akin to in the old days of bein a “house organ” and the reporter can always simply quote the CEO or other executive, customer or third party, but it becomes the head of communications job to insure that everyone knows what’s being said, where it’s being posted and the story behind the story. This is tried and true PR at work applied to the social media world.
Fourth–blogging about your own company in the blog is ok, but that’s self promotion. Blogging about the industry, society and the sector your company is in, is op-ed, counterpointing, and thought leadership driving. That’s being social. It’s about bringing the topics on your collective minds to the forefront, or simply serving as a news engine for others in your business or organization’s space. Unfortunately, too often paranoia from some part of the company, sometimes from the lawyers, the IR team or elsewhere puts FUD into the mix and nothing really gets out.
Lastly, what we see is the perversion where blogging and RSS feeds, Tweets and social groups capabilities into sales lead generation and marketing communications. The misnamed category of Social Media may be the cause of that, because in true marketing parlance, “media” is paid for so one can quickly see why it’s not “Social Publicity” where it’s not paid for directly. Perhaps we should really be calling the discipline “Social Communications” or even better yet, “Social Relations.”
Here’s a different twist. What about a manager who wants to write a blog, but under a pen name or moniker so that no one really knows that it’s him/her?
The person wants to go by a pen name of the opposite gender, as he/she thinks this would further protect his/her identity. This blog would be posted on the organization’s website, as it pertains to the organization’s business. The blog content is about public policy issues.
I feel this idea is certainly unethical (not to mention chicken) and if it was ever discovered, there would be a definite loss of credibility for both the manager and the organization.
[...] debate about “ghost bloggers” rages on and I find it truly humorous. I wonder if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad writes his own [...]