An article in Entrepreneur magazine talks about the burgeoning field of ghost bloggers:
Demand for ghostwriters surged last year: Its category [on Elance.com] jumped to the 25th-most popular from 74th over the first nine months of last year.
Brief mention how this is connected to the collapse of the print industry and the sudden availability of thousands of writing professionals that need to write something for someone for a rock-bottom price.
“If you’re a CEO and you’re hands off, not really editing, not really making sure it’s written in your voice, then it’s not credible,” says Dallas Lawrence, head of the digital media team at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C. “
If you don’t write it yourself it isn’t credible. If it isn’t you it isn’t credible.
“Ghostwriting can have a seedy appearance: Somebody you’ve hired is pretending to be you,” says Katie Gutierrez Painter, a writer in Austin, Texas. “Before I started, I saw it the same way. But you need to look at it from the business, branding and marketing standpoint. It’s just outsourcing an employee to work under the name of the company.”
Wrong. It is under the name of an individual. Not the company. Posting something and saying you wrote it when you didn’t is a lie.
I know there will always be ghost blogging and ghost tweeting but why is it so awful that it isn’t coming from you? Why can’t it be coming from your team or co-workers?
Why be a fraud?
Everyone talks about how consumers value authenticity so much and how they have to create that perception in the mind of the customer… why worry about creating perceptions and deal with the reality?
I'm Andy Wibbels. I'm the author of 
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RT @andymatic: New post: Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://bit.ly/ddY1it
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Andy
this is a great post!
(And I wrote this comment all by myself!) No ghosts allowed!
Nettie
via @andymatic: Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://bit.ly/buHxUg
from Twitter
Hey Andy,
I have done a couple of ghost writing assignments. On the whole, the experience was great in terms of cash and learning.
From experience, this is how I looked at it when I was into it.
The person for whom I wrote wanted to be a part of the changing wave (which was good for business) but at the same time was a generation behind. So personally the concept of communicating to socialise with complete strangers got him uneasy all the time.
Ghost blogging is sometimes less about being a fraud and more about how comfortable one is with this medium. People want an edge in business and web presence does help.
What really helped me was to first understand the individual before writing anything on behalf. Else the message conveyed would not be aligned to the individual’s thoughts. Something that happens so often in advertising wherein the advertise is completely misaligned to a company’s core strategies.
Final Note: I would rather write myself then have someone do it for me. It beats the purpose of communication if it is you and a ghost. I do not ghost write anymore. I now help ghost employers to write better and candidly. I work more on making them comfortable with this medium of communication.
Thanks Leticia and Nettie for your insights!
RT @tweetmeme Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://is.gd/8Ba3J
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RT @tweetmeme Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://is.gd/8Ba3J: RT @tweetmeme Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://is.gd/8Ba3J http://bit.ly/aF9bTZ
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I don’t see ghost blogging as fraud any more than ghost writing books is fraud, and that’s been a common practice for years.
That said, I don’t recommend “blind” ghost writing, i.e., the blog posts go out without the credited author ever seeing it. What I recommend to my clients is one of two approaches:
1. The credited author provides general guidance, topic, outline, etc. The ghost blogger drafts it, then the credited author reviews it to make sure it is accurate and matches their personal tone of voice.
2. The credited author drafts the post, then the ghost blogger wordsmiths it and posts it.
Let’s face it — some really smart people are terrible writers. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have a blog communicating their ideas, and it’s not inauthentic for them to get some help both from a time standpoint and to make it more readable than they’re capable of themselves.
If ghost blogging lacks authenticity, so does ghost written autobiography. I believe most politician’s autobiographical efforts are ghost written. Tell me I’m wrong. I’d love to have a better opinion of politicians.
And yet, somehow we have overlooked ghost writing for politicians.
I don’t see how that’s different from ghost blogging for CEO’s.
Andy, your fire-and-brimstone zeal to persuade us avoided the core problem: ownership. Everyone wants ownership of their lives and decisions these days, but thinks it’s possible to have authority without responsibility. Fail!
Your first quote wasn’t a criticism of ghost blogging per se, but of executives who want the authority of being bloggers without taking the responsibility of making sure it reflects their position. Condemning a tool is an easy but hollow exercise and I expect more from you.
Andy,
Thank-you for this post.
As someone who does work with business folks on blogging (by no means am I am pro…I just am someone who helps people get up and running), I clearly tell people this “If you, yourself and you do not have time to blog, and if you are going to hire a ghostwriter to write your blog, then just don’t open a blog! It will kill your credibility when people find out you can’t write!”
Generation Y (ages 20-30) is a generation that is in demand for transparency. They are our future clients, and once they find out that someone is ghostwriting your blog (or your book), they will blab about you to everyone. This demographic includes 72 million people, and they have a strong voice online and in their local and greater communities. The same goes for books…if you are hiring a ghostwriter to help write a book, put their names on the book as a co-author (which I did on Edge…everyone knows I am not a novel/narrative non-fiction writer, so I put the two authors who helped me on this book on the front cover as co-authors).
I could go on and on about this rant, but the bottom line is this…if you are presenting yourself as something you are not, don’t expect your business to thrive in the future. Integrity and transparency (yes…the t word that everyone is sick of) are going to be two leadership foundations that we are all going to be required to stand on, and if you are using a ghostwriter, you are basically lying to the public.
Bea
RT @andymatic Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://bit.ly/bjxh7w. Interesting idea for a part time job – writing blogs for rich posers. Um.
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RT @andymatic Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://bit.ly/bjxh7w
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Great point Andy, actually I am ghost writing this comment…LMAO
John
RT @andymatic Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://bit.ly/bjxh7w
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RT @colderICE: RT @andymatic Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://bit.ly/bjxh7w
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Do you agree? RT @andymatic Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://bit.ly/bjxh7w
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Andy,
I blog for several companies on a regular basis. They are companies for which I have written much marketing material. I know the owners and we talk frequently. Some allow me to use my first name and some ask me to use their name. In all cases, the feeling from them and from comments that are left is that I know the company and its products very well and I understand how they can help people. Many of my blogs are researched topics that benefit their customers, so they have gained a great following from their customers who then become repeat customers and recommend the company to others.
Most people who start or run a company are of a generation that is not comfortable with social media. Many are men with little interest in writing (and not the best skills in the English language). They are more than willing to entrust their company and their brand to me because they know me and know what I have produced for them in the past. Many read my blogs and tell me they learned something from them!
While I have heard people say they can write a blog in 15 minutes, I find that a good blog that is helpful to people often takes an hour of research and 30-40 minutes of writing and another 20 minutes of searching for an appropriate picture. People who are running companies do not have that kind of time! Therefore, they are willing to hire someone like me to do it.
While I ghostwrite books and ebooks and allow my clients to put any name on it they want to, most of my clients have found that I am such a sound writer that they benefit even more by putting my name on everything I write. The pretense is that I am one of their employees . . . and isn’t that what freelancing is all about?
Sally
Andy, as a ghostwriter, and ghost tweeter, I believe your black and white view of this subject is naive. The people I write for are no more frauds than people who do the writing themselves. I provide a service that enables people who either don’t have the time or talent to engage people using the written word. I give them a voice.
But that’s not done blindly. I spend time with my clients to understand who they are within their businesses and how they think. I write as THEM using their ideas and thoughts. Nobody ever suspects my clients are not the ones doing the writing, regardless of the publishing medium.
To Bea’s comment that if it was discovered my clients can’t write – who cares? Unless someone is billing themselves as a writer – and then hiring someone else to write for them – I think this is a moot issue.
To label people frauds because they aren’t doing their own writing is harsh. I do write for the individual within an organization – and if they don’t like what I write, it is rewritten. Nothing I do is published without approval from the person (or persons) for whom I’m writing copy. To do otherwise would be careless and I’d lose my client base.
I’m proud of the work that I do on behalf of my clients – and so are they. Ghostwriters/tweeters must uphold their own high standards and not be sucked into nefarious or questionable situations whereby the client does nothing, leaving the entire messaging up to the ghost.
If integrity and honesty are the foundation of the ghost/client relationship, then transparency is inherent if the messages delivered are based on the client’s needs/wishes/intentions. The responsibility for this falls on both sides. Failure by one party, means failure of the relationship – period.
To say that using a ghostwriter means someone is lying to the public is ludicrous. A statement like this simply tells me the person doesn’t really understand at all what a ghostwriter does, nor has any conception of how much that is written is provided by ghosts – whether that be books, speeches, articles, blog posts, etc. In other words, we’re everywhere – you just can’t see us.
RT @andymatic Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://bit.ly/bjxh7w [I've mixed feelings/opinions on this one fwiw.]
from Twitter
I’m a writer and copywriter, sooooo am a tad biased on this subject I suppose
Ghost blogging works and for some companies/entrepreneurs, it HAS to work. There are only so many hours in a day, and while yes, blogging and social media are absolutely about authenticity and personal connection, some biz folk simply need help with it.
The key is to align with a writer/blogger who really “gets” your voice, style and most importantly, point of view. Moreover though, how the content game is attacked depends on the objectives for the blog.
And if the blog is to be a vehicle for voicing opinion, establishing expertise, yadda yadda, then ghost bloggers in my mind are more like ghost editors or “coaches.”
With twitter and the like, sometimes it’s really about helping a business person find their groove, establish a comfort level with the medium, create some momentum. That kind of thing.
Lots of food for thought here though – thanks for bringing this up.
Karri
I can’t agree with the premise of the post. In a perfect world it would be great if everyone was transparent and upfront, we all know this is not the case.
I see it as referenced above ghost writing is “outsourcing” there is good and bad out sourcing, if the ghost writing is great no one is really going to care.
Steve Harvey -did not write his best selling book, it was a smart cookie who leveraged his show and name into millions. I have not read the book, but it is literary flying off the selves. Mission accomplished!
I write my own stuff because I am arrogant like that.
RT @andymatic Ghost Blogging is Fraud http://bit.ly/bjxh7w What to you think?
from Twitter
Consider:
The president of the United States sends you a letter. It has his signature. Did he really sit down and compose it? In all liklihood, he never even saw it.
Fraud?
You get the alumnae news from your alma mater. There is an introductory article by the school’s president. Did he really write it? Probably not. He probably skimmed it, but not in many cases.
Fraud?
David Letterman, Jay Leno, et. al. go out and tell jokes to America every night. Most of those jokes they didn’t write. Bob Hope had a staff of writers that wrote jokes for him going all the way back to WWII. They deliver jokes they didn’t write.
Fraud?
I think we have to be VERY careful in using the word fraud. Yes, people should read and approve everything that goes out under their name. If they don’t they are incredibly careless and have opened themselves up to massive problems.
But FRAUD????
I don’t think so!
I do want to be clear that I don’t consider ghost blogging and ghost writing to be the same thing. For me it is about expectations.
When I read a famous person’s biography and the byline says ‘with so-and-so’ we all know that in reality the famous person probably told the ‘real’ author the content and the author shaped it.
When I read a letter from the president in an alumni newsletter I expect that it has been shopped around and proofed and massaged by a communications department. It is public relations collateral.
When I read a press release I assume it is a functional document dedicated to delivering news about something someone somewhere thinks is important.
When I watch a late night TV show I am watching performance of a persona so I have no expectations that the words the person is saying are ones they actually wrote. The same conventions apply in movies and theatre.
The President of the United States sends me a letter. It has gone through several layers of administration and communications. I assume it is not the exact words and if it looks like mass-printed letterhead I know better.
Also I think fraud may have been too heavy of a word since there’s ‘being a fraud’ as in
being a no-good douchelord assclown lying sack of crapnot being truthful and then there’s ‘I committed fraud’ in the legal Madoff nail-’em-to-the-Wall-Street-bull-statue sense. I meant the former.It is slippery and I’m probably a purist. I just think that if the basis for a publishing medium is THESE ARE MY WORDS then if you hire someone to write not-your-words under your name you are not being honest. In other media formats this expectation is much looser.
I don’t expect ghost blogging to stop because of my opinion.
Sally if you use your first name when posting to your client’s blog then you aren’t ghost blogging. You’re a blogger-for-hire. I think there’s a key difference here.
Great comments from everyone – thank you so much!
(I removed some language up there because I realized it was not my intention in describing types of fraud and was a phrase where I started to make one point but ended up making a different point and not adjusting the language)
The word “fraud” is much too strong in my view, which Andy seems to have made even stronger and more offensive in his follow-up comment.
Having worked with CEOs and other top executives over the years on their communications, I never met one who simply let a writer take off expressing his own thoughts and POVs. Ideally, the CEO and the writer discuss the general theme and POV of the article and the key messages to be communicated. Sometimes the CEO does a first rough draft that the writer whips into shape. They key is this: is the POV, language and voice the CEOs? In the case of employees who are thirsting to hear more from their leader, then it is more important that they hear from her, whether every single word was written by her or she got an assist from a writer.
We keep talking about the messenger (the CEO or her ghost writer). What about the recipients? What are their information needs? Isn’t consistent communications that reflects the CEO’s heartfelt opinions (possibly put into words by a writer) the objective? I do believe times are changing, and that more CEOs will start giving credit to writers, especially in social media like blogs, which no doubt are a more personal medium. Maybe at the bottom of the article, something like “Written with John Smith.” To Bea’s point, (and I greatly respect her as my blogging coach) if you are a writer/blogger as I am, it would be foolish to have some write my blogs: they are my work product and go into my portfolio.
But let’s ease up a little — this isn’t all black or white.
I still think that blog posts, articles and PR communications are completely different types of media with very different expectations. Maybe over time blogging will come to be seen in the same vein of ‘this has gone through committees or approvals or filters internally.’ But for now I think the expectation of a blog post with your name on is ‘these are my words.’
As the time passes since I hit post I realize a better title would have been ‘Is Ghost Blogging Fraud?’ Yeargh. I feel dumb for not using that since it would have evoked more discussion and tempered the sharpness of my own opinion.
Come on Andy…you are an in your face guy. The title was perfect. If that is how you feel…it is how you feel. You got some great feedback, and it’s all just feedback. There are no right or wrong opinions…just opinions. You put a strong opinion out there, and it stirred up great discussion. Jeannette Paladino and I went into a very healthy debate during a call yesterday on this issue, and we are now going to collaborate on something because of your post.
So Andy…I appreciate your voice on possibly making the title different, but those of us who follow your blog don’t want you to stop the sharp approach…the sharp opinions are what drive change.
Bea, I agree w/ both points you make.
One: Andy, you ARE an in-your-face guy, and I read even your most outrageous posts with an understanding that you are not trying to alienate as much as trying to provoke (a good thing, I assess).
And two, if you can’t/don’t like to write, then DON’T choose a blog as your medium! People who can’t sing don’t press and sell CDs, so why is it we believe that everyone ‘must’ have a blog?
Jim
I think there’s a difference between hiring some ghostwriter to spew blogs based on keywords, and hiring a blogging partner who will help you translate your own ideas onto paper. It’s like Obama hiring a speechwriter — he’s involved in the process, he’s a great speaker, they’re his ideas, and in the end, he’s the one whose face is on the product. But does he really have to write every speech himself from scratch? Isn’t it more effective to work closely with a speechwriting partner who knows his style and works to craft convincing speeches based on that?
What’s the difference between a great speechwriter and a ghost blogger?
It’s the expectation. When I hear a speech from a politician the conventions of the format and the history of the format tell me that these words may or may not have been written by a professional team. The pedigree of blogging is THESE ARE MY WORDS.
I get Andy’s distinction between blogs, articles, speeches, etc. I think, when a company brands a blog, it is not a true blog at all but a corporate marketing microsite. In either case–individual or corporate blog–online musings made public are very much an act of brand marketing. The viewpoints are being pitched to the public for a reason–to provoke thought, change opinions, influence behavior, drive readership (and advertising sales), etc.
A blog is positioned by brand identity and point of view. That view can be articulated by individuals, corporate marketing teams, or the writers who work for them. That said, I agree that ghosting a blog for an individual could be a bad idea. Capturing a “personal brand” through point of view and tone of voice is not a job for amateurs. I’ve gladly ghostwritten magazine articles for engineers, architects and technology executives. But I would hesitate to ghost their blogs unless I could get some significant face time. (And frankly, I’d rather not!)
Will readers feel cheated if they learn they’ve been reading the online ramblings of a PR lackey under the guise of the CTO? Perhaps. Will they even raise the question, if the posts deftly express the blog brand? Probably not.