Copyblogging SUCKS!
Shannon Paul’s post on Ghostblogging found it’s way into my in box last week. As a person who has done an itty bitty “ghostblogging” work, I can both argue in favor and against her points.
One of Shannon’s strongest points, and one I agree wholeheartedly with, is the lack of authenticity with ghostblogging. Blogging is seen as the open door to someone’s mind. It’s personal branding yourself - whether you are a CEO, consultant, journalist, or student. Handing the blogging job off to someone else completely, looses that authenticity. There’s several things a ghostblogger cannot do for a client:
1) Be controversial: Some of the best ways to get your blog noticed, is to make bring a little controversial thought to the table. No matter how close your ghostblogger is to the organization, they will never have the authority nor the guts to make a profound statement. Blog posts will always stick to the general idea, staying to the safe side of the playground. Potentially loosing really great conversations.
2) Be the client: I don’t care how much you listen, read, or copy from a client’s “writing” style. Much like a fingerprint, each person has their own writing style. I will never write like Shannon Paul or Chris Brogan. Nor, will they ever write (or probably ever want to!!) like me. Blogging has personality to it, and so does your writing.
On the flip-side, reader expectations of blogs are getting out of hand. In order for a blog to even be visible, they have to appear on Google, Digg, Alltop, StumbleUpon, or any other of hundreds of social bookmarking sites. That requires CONTENT. Content takes TIME. Especially QUALITY. Chris Brogan can pop out three blog posts in a day but they are not high quality posts with well thought out arguments. Just conversation starters.
Social Media junkies scream for more corporate blogs. CEO’s, CMO’s, and COO’s do have to work you know? In general, it is unrealistic to expect CEO’s and leadership to take time out to blog. Did it make a sale? Did it increase workforce productivity? Sure, it’s cheap marketing. But then again, most CEO’s don’t control traditional PAID marketing. It’s delegated.
So if social media and blogging is part of the marketing component, then CEO’s should be able to hand it off like every other marketing tool. P&G has done a great job at social media, but they have front runner as their representative. David Knox is NOT the CEO of P&G.
It seems as though there is no win - win situation. Either corporations have an in house staff to control the social media content of the marketing mix, or they should just forget it. It’s unrealistic to expect top leadership who already manage a career and family to add blogging into their mix. Unless you love to blog like you love to run, ghostblogging is here to stay.
Why Copy / Ghostblogging SUCKS!
If your blogging for anything other then yourself, it sucks. Here’s why:
1) Better be a journalist or english major. Blogging doesn’t require a journalism degree, but your damned if you write less than par. Ironically, there a tons of blogs (Egos ones too!) who use horrible sentance structure and make no clear point. I don’t know how many times I have read a blog post by some egocentric big shot, and said “WTF did he just say?”.
Yet, if you are hired to blog, there is the expectation to write like a journalist.
2) Not all subjects are your forte: You may get stuck with finding and formulating opinions on subjects that are not within your expertise. Not being an english major, I can’t give you the definition of an adverb, but how many english majors can explain command line of sight and wavelength modulation. Until you really familiar with a subject, your post will lack substance.
3) Creativity killer: If you are constantly producing, producing, and more producing, creativity dies. Over abundance of blogging is like competing in multiple bodybuilding competitions, without adequate recovery time. Eventually your muscles (mind) becomes exhausted and worthless.
Everyone participating in social media needs to have a clear direction of their goals. If it is corporate marketing, then realize it’s going to take a team of people to be successful. Allocate adequate funds to support the mission.
If it’s personal branding, then decide if blogging 3 - 4x per week is something you want to dedicate to. Personal branding cannot be outsourced.
I Blog. Therefore I am a SuperHero!
You’re an industry success. You are an expert within the field. You’ve personal branded yourself in the “real” world. Everyone knows you, but not in social media. You start a blog to share your knowledge with others. You’re a SUPER HERO in the social media world!
How many times have we heard of professionals or industry experts have the expectation they will be another golden child of social media just by having a blog? To much of their frustration and dismay, they aren’t handed the crown immediately by social media junkies. They start to ask, “What am I doing wrong? I don’t get this Twitter thing. I have knowledge but why aren’t they listening?”
Social media experts come back with instructional blog posts of “How to use Twitter”, “Personal Branding”, and “Get a LinkedIn account”. Everyone listens, and sign up for all these accounts. What do they do: nothing. They sit there staring at it like Twitter gives you measles.
Real World vs. Social Media World
For lack of better terminology, let’s call people in corporate America who gains revenue from everything besides social media, as the “Real World”. “Social Media World” is the professionals who are building businesses centered around either developing social media platforms, evangelizing it, or as a consultant. Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Neenz, and Mark Zuckerb fall into this category.
What is extremely interesting is the number of real world professionals that try to cross over and expect immediate success. It just doesn’t happen. Regardless of how many bloggers and social media experts scream “Conversation” is the key, newbies still have the idea blogging once a week will equal instant success.
Pattern Of Social Media Immersion
There is a behavioral pattern of people entering social media. It typically starts with “I have a blog. Hear me roar!”. Great. Everyone has a blog including the neighbors’s pets. Realizing they are writing but no one is reading, they start searching out answers on how to have social media success.
They stumble upon Guy or Chris’s blog. Two of most successful social media professionals. They quickly get a Twitter account, LinkedIn, Facebook, and continue to blog. “I have a blog. I am Superhero!”. Again, they are lost because instead of looking at social media as a niche market, they just shove their blog posts at everyone.
Real world professionals don’t understand what it takes to have their success be transparent in the social media world. Why aren’t people engaging them? They get frustrated and pick one of the following paths:
1) Stick their nose up at social media and move back to real revenue making actions.
2) Hire a social media expert.
3) Keep blogging regardless if anyone is listening.
For the ones who have hired a social media expert, they probably are looking for someone to get their page views up. Beyond Hubspot’s king plan of meta tags, Google site maps, etc, there is the heart of what social media is about: conversation.
Professionals immersing themselves into the social media world, should treat it like it is a niche market. That’s all social media is. It is a niche market that maintains their own group values, decision making patterns, lifestyle similarities, morals, and behavioral patterns.
Traditional niche market groups require an outside agency to conduct research and population sampling to understand what drives the market. Social Media niche is putting it right out there in the open for you. You just have to listen and do it.
Niche Market Patterns
What is the key to breaking into the social media niche? Conversation. You can blog all day long, but if you are not joining the conversation on other blogs, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you will forever be invisible. Building a loyal customer, excuse me…readership base, is more than just keywords and meta tags. You have to go out like a street walker and talk to your customers…I mean readers. Engage them, entice them, yell profanities at them….Get their attention.
It takes a lot of work to stand on a street corner and start engaging. People like Chris Brogan make a CAREER of it. For the average real world professional, they struggle with work / social media balance. The social media niche really doesn’t care if you are sealing a multi-million dollar real estate deal today…they just care about the conversation on Twitter. Conversation is the key.
Get their attention, converse with them (OMG, actually reply on Twitter…REALLY!), and slowly start to build a presence. It is very hard for a real world professional to dominate the social media space since there are niche market experts who engage 24/7. Regardless, real world professionals have a wealth of information and knowledge to share. They can still have a substantial presence with some work and effort to join the conversation.
“Every substance is negatively electric to that which stands above it in the chemical tables,positively to that which stands below it” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Manic Monday - Nov 17
Of all Mondays to start off bad, why this one? Right from the get go I feel like I am kid who didn’t step up to get the last cookie fast enough. Instead, it was handed off to some other snot nosed brat.
Today is going to be that day, where I feel like I haven’t worked fast enough, hard enough, and produced enough results. I am torn. Wanting to scream ” I am one woman, one person…FUCK! I can only do so much”, and being very calm, just accepting my lost cookie as a learning lesson.
I am going to choose the later because it comes with a very good lesson.
Even though today didn’t start off early with a good morning run like I wanted, I still crossed off four items. Well, kinda…
As my day rolled along, I rolled fluidly with it. Didn’t bust my boobs on the bench press like I wanted, but instead, I got some more web database course done. It was probably the more “adult” decision of the day.
I decided to expand my web development knowledge last year by taking a position out of scope of my qualifications. I knew the power of the web and the shift in American jobbank to more technical based jobs. Though I secretly love electrical engineering, I wasn’t thrilled about going back to school in pursuit of a second bachelors. What I didn’t mind, was throwing down some cash for a certificate in web database development.
Realizing that my current J.O.B. is not a “career” for me, I question what I will actually use these new skills. Getting stuck in a techie department of some large corporation like Caci or Lockheed Martin, doesn’t really turn my panties inside out. I did realise that I enjoy any job in which I can manipulate or create something. As a production manager, I got down and dirty with the guys testing cable connectivity, assemble connectors, and write up BOM for new designs. Here, I get to create and design blogs, ads, etc. Though I am “terrible at PhotoShop” per my boss, I still give it a shot…over and over and over again. Yes, each attempt gets slammed down, but each time I learn something new.
So I like learning, creating, and having my hands in the muck. Which means I will probably go back to my BSBA and get some crappy cubicle job reviewing contracts or shuffling paperwork. Boy, couldn’t be more excited about my future…
