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.
