Blog
06.25
Here's a scary subject: Ghostblogging.
The middle of last decade brought about the advent of the blogosphere. What used to be just a space for an ego storehouse online seems to now be a level of atmosphere the space shuttle needs to jettison through before orbit.
You know, troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere... um, did I get too dorky there? Moving on...
Arguably, one of the leading pioneers behind these new-fangled thingies is Richard Edelman, PR maven and blogging empresario. I found myself thinking of him lately after another social media workhorse Mark Ragan posted this tweet:
MarkRaganCEO: Is ghost blogging for your CEO acceptable? This blogger says "yes!"
Rewind a few years to a well-known blog - or "flog" as we'll discuss shortly - called "Walmarting Across America."
This blog was launched as a web-based journal of two chums on this transcontinental trek frequenting Wal-Mart stores along the way. The only issue with this grandiose undertaking - it was a fake blog ("F-log").
At the time, this created quite the hullabaloo because although an absolute genius idea, it was a little on the shady side because of how it was positioned and got pummeled in the press.
Blah... blah... blah... fast forward to Mark Ragan's tweet, "Is Ghostblogging acceptable?"
I have an unique perspective on this issue because for the better part of a decade, I was a ghostwriter. It was a complete honor and I assure you, there was nothing surreptitious about it.
Does anyone think a CEO would allow anything to go out under their name if it wasn't directed, urged and somewhat micromanaged? Uh, no.
In a pure and perfect world, executives should write their own copy. But practically speaking, I don’t agree.
Make that two of us.
These days, ghostblogging and ghostwriting are one in the same.
It happens everywhere - powerful executives reach out to these hired guns with nice penmanship and voracious dexterity, provide a full outline of pontifications and the rest is up to the ghostwriter. Following writing the sequel to the To Kill a Mockingbird (or some such), said executive must look that thing over and approve it every word.
It's like sausages - everyone knows how they're made, refuses to talk about it and usually enjoys the outcome.
Blogs are no different... these days. The CEO owns it, approves it and enjoys it. And sometimes paid someone to write it.
So, for Mark Ragan, "Yes, they are acceptable if done ethically." And for Richard Edelman, "If only someone else had come up with that chicanerie, huh?"
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