First off, I just wanted to thank Dave for inviting me to join in the conversation on Ghostwriting in Social Media. Secondly, I want to make something very clear before I stand up on my soapbox: I am a marketer—and founder & CEO of the interactive e-marketing firm ListEngage.com—and as a company, we do represent various clients and organizations in the social media space by helping them market their products and services on a daily basis.

As an organization, when invited to work with a client, although we may not initially feel one way or another towards, let’s say, the medical device industry for example—we do feel strongly about the real-life people, friends, and partners that we support with our efforts. So, when a client asks us to engage their audience because they don’t have the expertise, the resources, or “bandwidth” to execute their social media strategy, we lend a hand.

In my mind, this new “digital ghostwriting push” is actually nothing new: popular brands have been doing it for years—via customer service “response” letters, pre-recorded phone calls, emails and direct mail pieces. This is just the latest version of busy people outsourcing their surplus work to others who they have trained and who they trust.

Do you think that Teddy Roosevelt (or any President for that matter) really replied to every letter he received during his time at the White House? Do you think that the Beatles really penned back responses to all their swooning teenage followers?  Do you think that the President of Ford, Toyota, Coke, or (Fill in Big Corporation Here) always respond directly to letters, emails, or tweets that they receive? Do you “believe” that it is absolutely from them if it has their name on it?

Bottom line: the average person only has so much bandwidth with which to process and reply to the information coming at them—and if you’re @THE_REAL_SHAQ (a brand in and of himself), for example, there’s just no chance that you can reply to almost 3 millions followers’ messages and maintain any semblance of a life… yet someone is taking the time to reply to his fans every day…

Not only is it naive to assume that big names and small companies are executing 100% of their own Social Media—it’s also a bit silly to get offended if you find out otherwise.

Social media opens up avenues of conversations that customers and fans have never had before, but it also opens up the virtual floodgates to companies and people who are in the limelight, and if you don’t know how to manage this, don’t have the time, or the expertise—then you’re liable to get burned, unless you have the right (and properly trained) “support team” behind you.

Continued

This response was originally posted on Shava Nerad’s blog Memesplice. It is used with permission.

This is a response to Ja-Nae Duane’s article, which in turn responds to Dave Weineke’s article, both on UsefulArts.us, Dave’s blog.

You should go read both.  But briefly, Dave thinks a blog article written by one person and posted under another name is a violation of ethics.  Ja-Nae, speaking as a client, begs to differ.

Let me, as a professional, explain why Ja-Nae is not only justified, but supported by a long history that should be admired and respected.

Those of you who know me in person probably know I come off better in print than I often do in public.  I’m not a stylish dresser.  I’m a bit geekish, and when I am not on a podium, my speech is overly-mannered and too fast.

But I can write.  And I have a terrific ear.

I have ghost written a blog for a Harvard professor and have ghost written speeches for a major figure in philanthropy and a number of politicians.  I have written articles for CEOS and professors that were placed in major publications, and ghosted an article by a major magazine editor when he was asked to write a guest column for Newsweek.

My name not on those works.  Not only that, but in many cases, I am contractually or otherwise professionally obligated not to list those works on my resume or mention the clients by name.

But I have to say, I was paid well by most of them (some of the political work was volunteer).

Is it ethical to publish an article solely in our client’s name?  It always has been.  We might be listed as staff on a publication, or a roster.  The thoughts we write are not, technically, our own.  We don’t really do much more than a radio journalist does when interviewing a public figure, cutting small talk, removing the um’s and ah’s, and re-recording and restating questions to better fit the time allotted for a story.  Oh, wait — you mean you didn’t know they did that either?

Even when ghosting is transparent, it has been quickly forgotten or overlooked by the public in the past.  Every American history reader knows President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country!”

But Kennedy only *said* those words, which are attributed to him in every reference work of quotations in the world.  A genius speech writer, Ted Sorenson, wrote those words for him.

Sorenson, an intelligent, intellectual, modest man, did what he did out of purpose and love, with a finely honed sense of language — and an intimate understanding of the man he worked for.

His words carried Kennedy’s authentic voice around the world.

The job of a ghost or speech writer is to get so far inside the mind and skin of her/his client that you are no more “faking” the person’s words, than a hairdresser is “faking” the person’s hair. Ideally, a professional makes the expression of style a natural extension of the individual. The client runs a comb through, and every word falls in place as though it grew that way.

Sometimes, the “fix” is obvious.  Did anyone think Sarah Palin solo’d her book?  Authenticity is transparent with or without a ghost (Lynn Vincent, senior writer for the Christian publication World Magazine).  The Christian Science Monitor estimates that 90% of politicians’ books are ghosted, Obama’s being a notable recent exception.

Some of us do this better than others.  We have, in the parlance of social media, been “delivering authenticity” for longer than any media workers.

Continued

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to yesterday’s post, The Ethics of Ghost Writing and Marionette Social Media.

As someone who does a tremendous amount of outsourcing, this is a topic that is near and dear to me.

Blogging:
I am a huge advocate of outsourcing my blog writing. Why?

Well, I have two reasons:

• Time: I am an idea person. I think of more blog posts that I can actually write. It sometimes inhibits my ability to even outline a blog post. With that being said, it is much easier to create a topic and a few key points that I want highlighted and then hand it over to someone I trust with “my voice” and who can deliver it to me in a timely fashion.
• Trust: Tina and I have been working together for a while now. She gets who I am, what I am trying to say, and how I want to say it. She was the one who took my notes, outline, and previous articles and assembled my new book, “How to Start Your Business with $100”

Because she and I worked so closely on something so personal, it was an easy switch for her to start writing my blog posts for my blog as well.

Social Media:
This is an area where I change my tune.

SM interactions have to be personal. Sure, you can have someone scan news and articles for you, but at the end of the day, only YOU know how you would respond to a comment or how you would engage an individual.

As a social media strategist, my team and I have had to take on personas more frequently than I would care to share. I make the recommendation to have us teach the individual how easy it is to engage in the social sphere, however, many people still feel that social media is overwhelming and refuse to touch it.

On the flip side of that, how would you feel if you were corresponding with someone who was not really that individual? Would you feel cheated? Would you care?

My experience is that people absolutely care. They want to know that they are reaching that individual and not a member of their staff. It completely changes people’s perception of that individual.

Continued

The road to hell isn’t just paved with good intentions. Its slope is masked by perfectly plausible justifications.

So here’s the nice, clear thesis this post will advance:

Unacknowledged ghost authorship of social media is unethical if you put your name on it.

Many errors seem benign in the beginning. But no matter how gradual its onset, the practice is wrong, unethical, and a threat to reputation and business.

The Slippery Slope
Personal conventions and ethics are still catching up to the “Brand You” world we live in.

Social media is a good way to extend your brand. So, first comes the blogging. That’s essentially a magazine, and publications outsource their writing all the time. So after a while trust, authenticity, and transparency become just production values in the service of gaining subscribers and brand awareness.

And once you have a ghostwritten blog, it’s a small step to ghost Twitter updates. Again, there are justifications (did you think Obama did all his own campaign Twittering?).

But the whole point of social media is to have a two way relationship. So these channels generate comments and replies, and then other blogs and Twitter feeds comment on them.  The next step is outsourcing these interactions — and that’s how brands can end up with a social media house of cards.

The Truth is Simple
A byline is a statement of fact; it identifies the author of a piece of writing. Therefore, it must be accurate.

Kanye West’s blog, which kept publishing posts even after he was jailed, exposed a factual lie. Hugh Jackman’s Twitter feed, ironically called The Real Hugh Jackman, was embarrassingly shown to be written by staff. Outsourcing social media is okay; lying about it is an error.

The problem in both these examples isn’t that the celebrities were exposed for not writing the entries personally.  It is that they were making a factual claim that was false.

Less Conflict of Interest, More Feigning of Interest
Guy Kawasaki gracefully disclosed his use of three ghostwriters on his Twitter account.  Having been a proponent of social media and transparency, some of his readers found his outsourcing hypocritical.  One reader said he was complimented that Kawasaki had taken the time to read and comment on his blog. Now he has cause to question whether that was a faux-personal touch.

Like Martha Stewart, who advocates a lifestyle that isn’t sustainable by a single human, Guy Kawasaki is also an evangelist.  His use of technology and social media is core to his brand.  As he noted in his defense of outsourcing part of his Twittering:

“Basically, for 99.9 percent of people on Twitter, it is about updating friends and colleagues about how the cat rolled over,” he said. “For a tenth of a percent it is a marketing tool.”

Compare Guy Kawasaki to Charlie Baker
Continued

An annual survey of marketing professionals indicates that the share of budget devoted to content creation will be 33 percent in 2010, triple the 11 percent the same survey projected in 2009.

Marketing spend is migrating online, and strong content is now “table stakes” for success in online marketing.  Online what we say defines who we are.

That’s why small firms reported investing twice the budget share on content as larger firms (a total of 40%). Content marketing is a chance for these firms to brand themselves while also acquiring prospects.

The chart below shows the much increased emphasis on mobile marketing, and the arrival of article marketing as a content and SEO tactic. You can count on more thinking on content strategy and its legal implications here on UsefulArts. (register for email updates).

Seth Godin may not want comments on his blog, but Google does.  Google’s Sidewiki service allows anyone with their tool installed to post and view comments in a frame right beside web content. I’ll provide a few examples of how this service is taking root, and some options for your Sidewiki strategy, including the choice to actively jam its operation.

Is Somebody Scribbling on Your Website?
That’s the upshot of Sidewiki. If you have a website, you may have comments that you can’t see unless you turn on the Sidewiki feature on the Google toolbar or the Chrome browser. The web and blogs aren’t necessarily social or interactive, but that’s exactly what Sidewiki delivers (whether you’re ready or not).

Can’t you just hear the sound of brand managers downloading Chrome and the Google Toolbar in droves? Already SEO consultants are claiming to have ways to get better results for your site through Sidewiki, and better placement for your comments.

Traditionally, Google has been at the center of the web as a search agent that directs visitors to helpful content on the edge. Suddenly, Google also has central content displaying out on the edge next to website content. This competes with commenting on sites, and it creates a bifurcated discussion as only those with Google software can see Sidewiki comments.

So, here’s what it looks like for some brands that have to take their play in social media very seriously.

The Mormon Church May Have to Discuss Homophobia on Its Homepage

Having run SEO for a major Christian denomination, I can assure you the LDS Church’s competition isn’t from the Baptists or Hindus. Rather, it’s from having a page discussing a law suit over pedophile scoutmasters come up in the top related search results. This is a beautiful site, which, in my opinion, is intentionally constructed not to directly engage on hot-button issues right out of the gate. Sidewiki changes that.

Ready or Not, Seth Godin Has Comments Now …

Yep, Seth Godin has a famous explanation for why he doesn’t have comments on his blog. Take a look: he has comments now. For good or evil, Google’s made the web more social for those who’d prefer it that way.

Is Sidewiki Good or Evil?
Commenting can do a lot of good. Real experts can set facts straight, and feedback will attach itself to bad companies so others can benefit from that feedback.  Further, comments are all attributed to specific accounts, so this is less anonymous than many schemes.

However, it allows Google, the arbiter of search, to also decide which posts should rise to the top of discussions. Suddenly it’s critical both in traffic acquisition and now also in onsite engagement. Further, the discussion is just a string of sequential one-off statements, sort of like those fake presidential debates. It would be more useful to allow site owners to respond directly to comments.

What Sidewiki Strategy Should Brandholders Adopt?

Continued

Litl Computer is to netbooks as iPods were to MP3 players.

The beauty of the iPod was that it was designed to fit people’s worlds. It fit physically and it conceptually allowed  users to find and get music from the web without being transfixed by technology.

Imagine a laptop built from its roots to be an easy, maintenance-free interface to the web.

That’s what Litl does. Like the iPod, it has its own OS and unique hardware design to be an interface between your home life and the web. So what does that mean for you?

Continued

If you’re blogging, you’re a publisher.  Yesterday I posted about how Cyber Liability Insurance may help firms mitigate the risks of new online business activities. But what about your personal blog?

Liability for Your Personal Blog? Oh, yes.
Andrew Hamilton published a website, Forgotten Ohio, in which he retold a local ghost story about a “haunted house” in his community. Though he didn’t encourage trespassing, or portray the property owners in a false light, a local court held the website liable for $125,000 in damages. See coverage of this horrifying ruling on Overlawyered.

Are There Liability Risks in Personal Blogging?
Even if your blog is non-commericial you can still be charged with defamation, copyright or trademark infringement, libel, slander (if you publish audio), and other creative charges. Once could also be charged for invasion of privacy as part of your news-gathering. Though the First Amendment protects what you say, it’s protection isn’t as strong about how you gather information to express.

And there is always the potential of infringement claims by trademark and copyright holders. And even if you’re in the right,  litigation can be expensive to defend, and the costs skyrocket the longer the litigation continues.

Besides, the law around many digital issues is still unfolding, and many jurisdictions vary in their knowledge of these laws. You may think you’re in the right but still find a decision against you. These unexpected rulings are the bread and butter of our online law blog.

You May Already Have Liability Insurance for Personal Blogging
If you have Homeowner’s or Renter’s Insurance, you have general liability insurance that could be applicable in some of these situations.  Most policies cover damages and fees incurred in suits against the insured for “bodily injury.” While that sounds more physical, this often includes  personal injury arising out of defamation or invasion of privacy.

Obviously, you are only covered if your insurance contract contains such language.

You should note, however, that your policy may not include coverage for copyright or other intellectual property claims, which do not typically fall within the standard definition of “bodily injury” or “personal injury” covered by most policies. Homeowner’s and renter’s insurance policies typically cover damages  and legal defense costs, but not punitive damages.

Extend Your Coverage With Media Insurance
Harvard’s Citizen Media Law Project provides resources to explain if you would benefit from Media Insurance.

If your online activities are part of an existing business, you may also be able to add coverage to your business insurance policy through an add-on rider. Keep in mind that the fact that you may not make money doesn’t insulate you from responsibility for what you publish online. And a few minutes thinking about how to avoid liability and protect yourself from charges may save you stress and thousands of dollars in expenses later.

Online marketing has moved many firms toward a publishing model to generate market awareness and engagement.

This has spawned a broader range of public exchanges with both customers and the public as they share ideas on company sites, and as company staff participate on others’ sites in official or quasi-official roles.

There may fewer customers slipping an falling on visits to stores or offices. However a new array of liabilities come with life online, which which larger firms may seek to mitigate with insurance.

• Online Defamation – even “private” online conversation can be construed to be public if they take place on social platforms, consider Finkel v. Facebook. Further, Staples suffered a ruling for defamation for making a truthful but harmful statement in a mass email.
• Data Privacy – the firm, or vendors doing work on their behalf, may lead to the breach of personally identifiable information (PPI) or company confidential information. If you’re doing business in the EU, or conducting credit card transactions additional laws may increase your liability.
• E-media and Internet Liability – new opportunities for false advertising, libel and slander are harbored in causual comments by staff or fast moving blog posts.
• Negligent Network Security – for failure of security measures to prevent a denial of service, unauthorized access, theft of electronic data, inadvertent transmission of a virus or other malicious code using your firm’s infrastructure.
• Infringement of Intellectual Property (IP) Rights –recent  copyright law and trademark law rulings are replete with unexpected outcomes.
• Cyber Extortion – for threats to disrupt your businesses online operation as a threat of extortion.

How to know if your firm needs cyber insurance
If your firm is going heavy into the digital realm, you absolutely need processes to mitigate these risks. But what factors make ponying-up cyber liability insurance more necessary?

• Deep pockets and high visibility.  (reward for litigants)
• Aspirations to use emerging technology on a wide scale. (entry to untested legal ground)
• Audiences for which error can be extremely costly. (risk of client certainty)

Next up: liability coverage for personal online use
In considering this I’ve also found resources on ways to cover your personal liability of non-professional blogging and use of social media. Remember, doing something without pay doesn’t insulate anyone from liability for their own actions. Continue reading the next post.

In Monrovia, Liberia, there’s a guy taking the matter of a lopsided, state-run media and reshaping it into a free-of-charge, independent news-aggregator—all accomplished with a whiteboard and couple of markers. (No Internet required!)

Each morning, at 10:45 a.m., Alfred Sirleaf heads to his bulletin board to post the day’s news, culling together a slate of stories his countrymen might otherwise never see.  A “self-taught newshound,” he reads half-a-dozen newspapers, then summarizes the most important topics and prints them out by hand in front of his plywood shed. He has recruited a set of stringers to send him scoops via text messages, and puts up a painted “Breaking News” sign to signal a big story. He’s even designed a system of symbols to convey the news to those who can’t read, or who are driving by.

Grateful readers line up in droves, on foot and in cars, to read these updates, in what has been described as the country’s — and probably the world’s — only analog blog.  Simplicity is the good manners of our age.