Is Ghostblogging Ethical?
I’ve covered this “ghostblogging” ground before, as part of the Social Media Ethical Dilemmas series from earlier this year. But I promised Steve Farnsworth, Lou Hoffman, and Paul Roberts that I’d join them in writing a few independent posts — on the same topic, on the same day — for our respective blogs. I’m a sucker for a deadline. And anyway, ghostblogging is a topic worth revisiting on occassion.
So: is ghostblogging ethical? Has my opinion changed since my last post on the topic in January?
Nope, I stand by what I said then:
The content (created by a successful corporate blogger) becomes part-and-parcel of an overarching communications strategy. It impacts inbound lead flow, thought leadership, SEO. There can be no retreat!
Because of the increasingly must-have nature of official corporate blogs, in-house marketers will insist that the content flow must.not.stop. And since these in-house marketers tend to have limited control over the (vaunted) executive blogger, there needs to be a fall-back strategy.
More and more, that fall-back strategy is going to include supplemental ghostblogging.
You can rail against it as a black mark against authenticity, but, it is happening and it is a trend that will only grow. Not enough people see this as a bright line separating “good” from “bad” to forestall the rise of ghostblogging.
(Thus):
Ghostblogging for a corporate-aligned but PERSONAL blog (like this one) 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.
In the intervening months, I’ve only seen more corporations invest in ghostblogging. Intriguingly, the client contacts very rarely even ASK about the ethics of the matter. It’s, “can you write a blog post for the corporate blog?” with nary an eyeblink; there is simply no AWARENESS that there MIGHT be an ethical question.
And that’s OK with me.
Ask me about “ghost commenting” sometime, though. That’s another story…
Posted on: September 8, 2010 at 7:20 am By Todd Defren
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Lots of shades of grey here. Since so much goes into a blog post, it’s sometimes hard for a CEO (or otherwise busy person) to crank it out on their own. Here’s the things that, to me, are ethical for a PR person to do.
Research: I’ve spent hours researching for a blog post before. I think it’s okay for a PR pro to collect a bunch of information which the author can then present in a blog post.
Idea development: I think most bloggers write down ideas for posts, even if they come from friends, strangers, pets, etc. If an idea for a post comes from a PR pro, I think that’s okay. PR folks should be gently guiding the blogging process anyway, and I think idea generation is a big part of that.
Proofreading: Need someone to look over the post? Maybe PR is a good choice. Great way to avoid accidentally saying something stupid.
When it comes to actually writing the post, I think that’s where the line is drawn. If it has the CEO’s name on it, that should be who wrote it.
If this is still an issue this far along into social media, wrap it up boys, it won’t last another 12 – 18 months. Start changing your title to remove social media from the title.
Although I’d LOVE to hear your opinion on ghost commenting…
(Yea, umm, don’t do that.)
I’m tackling the blogging issue from both sides of the corporate line, so bear with me! While in college I was often drawn in to freelance writing projects, many of which involved developing blog posts for corporate blogs. As these blog posts were published under the name of the corporation rather than an individual, and they were all carefully researched to make it sound like I had SOME idea of what I was talking about, I don’t see an ethical debate. I was, at that point, a contracted employee for the company, so I wasn’t actually impersonating anyone! And now that I’m solely responsible for creating daily blog posts for my company, on top of numerous other marketing responsibilities, I can completely understand the appeal of outsourcing this type of projects to free up your in-house marketing team for other functions. (Because really, who do you think corporations get to write their blog posts? It’s not (usually) the interns in the mail room, I’ll tell you that.)
That said, when you flip your attention from the corporate blog to the personal blog you enter a whole new field of blunders-and an area that can be frighteningly painted in gray. On the one hand, ghostwriting has been popular for much longer than the term “ghostwriting”‘s been around. Politicians have staff members to write their speeches. Authors drag in ghostwriters to bump them out of their writer’s block. Companies far and wide have ghostwriters developing their press releases. On the other hand, the individual in the blog is building a reputation for themselves through those posts…and won’t it be embarrassing if they have to carry on a conversation about something they haven’t researched and know nothing about? So it pays to think carefully about the situation before bringing a ghostblogger on board.
Good points Todd. It is especially interesting that while so many PR people are discussing the issue — it isn’t even an issue for most companies / clients. Maybe we are just wasting our breath…oh well, it was a fun exercise.
And, by the way, I would like to hear your thoughts on ghost commenting. I have more of a problem with ghost tweeting and commenting because I think that is where you really get into the area of misrepresentation.
Great point! I hadn’t even considered that someone would hire a ghostblogger for a personal blog. I have to say that I agree with you. A ghost written “personal” blog would seem akin to Astroturfing to me.
Good post, Todd. The ethical lines here seem a little murky to me but overall I agree with you and Jesse. I’d certainly prefer that everyone is up front and only takes credit where credit is fully due, but the routinization of corporate blogging makes that doubtful at best. And the “personality” issue seems a bit of a red herring. Direct email, white papers, ebooks, newsletters, videos, and every other vehicle all have more or less “personality;” it’s often one of the things that separate successful from not. As you say, we don’t rail against ghost writing for these. Why are blogs so different that they merit some special ethical category?
Here’s another thought: Perhaps the celebrity book approach makes sense. Why not cite the ghost writer in smaller type for more “personal” blogs or blog posts that require ghost writers?
I think Ghostblogging is ethical. In fact, I don’t really understand the fuss behind it. Blogging is a tool people use to market their businesses, they should be able to produce content in anyway they want. But that’s just my feelings. Perhaps I’m missing something. Thanks for the intriguing post.
I think the topic can be treated from two different perspectives.
1 – ghostblogging on a corporate blog: it isn’t unethical for the simple reason that the blogger becomes by all means an employer of said corporation, therefore I see no difference in delegating him or any other company employer to do that
2 – ghostblogging on behalf of a corporate manager: THIS would be unethical, and I have seen this debated over a lot of times. I can understand an individual revising a blog post of, say, the company’s CEO and help him improve his blogging arsenal, but delegating a post entirely and still “signing” it… well I know many are doing it, but I consider it kind of worthless.
What do you think?
Great post, it’s a concept that has become extremely important to keep the information and messaging flow maintained on blogs. I agree.
Ronnie – @RManning_Mynt
Very interesting post and really, the comments show that this is an issue that has more than a few sides of debate to it. From my own perspective, I would say whether ghostbloging is ethical all depends upon the situation, as I think you said in your original post, Todd (please correct me if I’m wrong). If your blog is viewed by outside audiences (or even internal ones, in some cases) as a personal blog you write from the perspective as a company employee or owner, I think it’s absolutely unethical to have a ghostblogger in that case. People are taking your insight and advice on that blog under the assumption it is coming directly from you, not from a few points of focus you send your writer each week.
If, however, a blog is used primarily from a corporate perspective, with a multitude of audiences in mind, then I think ghostblogging falls under the category of many other marketing communications where there is a broad strategic focus for the blog, along with an editorial calendar (just as you would have with a company newsletter), but it’s written from a variety of voices, and one of those may include a ghostblogger.
There is certainly a fine line to this debate, and it’s not one I’m so sure we can cut right down the middle and say, “Yes, this is ethical,” or “No, that’s unethical.” Rather, in the blurred world that is often digital/social communications and media, these types of issues often need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
But this definitely got me thinking!
Nice post Todd, I remember the post you did years back on the same topic. I have to admit I totally agree that ghostblogging as someone else is wrong. I do write on more than 30 blogs so I have experience writing for other companies but I don’t ghost post as an author. I see best practice as posting under your own name.
I know it does go on in the industry but blogs are about personality. I have a Twitter application called http://tweasier.com/ and I have several people who blog on that blog all about Twitter stories and tips etc. We often have people from the social media world who do guest posts because they have a particular skill set in one particular part of social media. However, we would never ghost post as the blog has its personality and so do its writers.
Keep up the good work. C
If ghostblogging on a corporate blog is unethical, so is creating the first drafts of press releases, contributed articles, website copy and more. As long as it is reviewed and approved by the party it is attributed to, I see no problem.
Oh, I know we like to think that blogging is “different” than other arrows in the marketing / communications quiver – and it is, but that’s about specific intent and approach, not ultimate objective – ultimately, a corporate blog is a marketing initiative (as are most personal blogs, whether people like to admit that or not).