32 Responses

1. Tim Allik

   27|Apr|2007 1

   Hi Bryan, thanks for your interest in the Scuderi Group blog, airhybridblog.com.

   I disagree with you completely, however, on the logic or necessity of a PR executive inserting him or herself into a client’s story when it comes to reporting on events pertaining to that client. The Scuderi Group blog, airhybridblog.com, is news-focused, not opinion-focused. If and when opinions about specific issues are expressed on airhybridblog.com, we identify the Scuderi executive presenting that opinion.

   I come from a news background, where news reporters and producers file non-bylined stories all the time. News writers working for broadcast operations invariably write copy for news anchors without attribution. Katie Couric does not identify the writers of the reports that she reads on the air. She does obviously approve of the copy she reads, however. It’s a given. Likewise, the Scuderi Group approves of what I write on the company’s blog.

   On airhybridblog I am not “ghost blogging” in that I am not presenting myself as a specific Scuderi Group executive. I am filing news bulletins and linking to stories that are relevant to the company’s story, as a member of the Scuderi team – which I am. It’s not about me. It’s about the Scuderi Group. And that’s OK.

   To broaden the discussion, ever since the dawn of public relations, PR executives have ghost written articles – including opinion pieces – for clients without identifying themselves in those articles, which are subsequently published in their client’s name. So in the overall context of PR as a profession, you are proposing an entirely new code of ethics, which may be laudable – but I think it’s an important point to acknowledge.

   You posted a comment on airhybridblog.com about this issue. I am not going to approve that comment because its not related to the Scuderi Group or Air-Hybrid technology. It’s about PR, so I came here to respond.

   Cheers, Tim

2. Bryan

   27|Apr|2007 2

   Tim, thanks for your comment.

   What I am proposing — though I don’t think this is a new concept — is that a blog is not a news release, a newspaper opinion piece, a TV report piece, or a presidential speech. It’s its own medium, and it’s one where transparency and the human voice should be paramount.

   Whereas a ghostwritten news release, press statement, or speech is considered standard practice, a non-bylined company blog strikes me as bad practice — even if the posts have a news angle rather than an opinion one.

   But in a situation where the clients themselves likely have no interest or expertise in doing the actual news-based blogging, how does it ultimately get done? I think there has to be a better solution than this one.

   Other opinions?

3. Terry Fallis

   27|Apr|2007 3

   Interesting debate. While I concede that in the more traditional PR channels, transparency is not always there. But I tend to agree with Bryan that at least for the time being, and I hope for ever, social media demands transparency and authenticity of voice. While I have always believed that in an ideal world, clients should do their own blogging, there should at least be disclosure of the PR firm’s involvement. We don’t conduct blogger relations in the same was as we do media relations. The rules are different and this very conversation proves it.

4. Tim Allik

   27|Apr|2007 4

   I studied history in college, so whenever someone says, “this time, it’s completely different,” my ears immediately prick up and sirens go off.

   It’s never completely different.

5. Doug Haslam

   27|Apr|2007 5

   Bryan,

   We’ll be using your comment when we record the show today, and we’ll discuss it. Ghost writing of blogs has come up as a topic before, and there is a lot of disagreement about it, so it’s still a good topic.

   Obviously, at Topaz we don’t have a problem with Ghost writing. And transparency is an issue with all social media. the air hybrid blog has taken a different tack, as it is not written in a personal voice, but as information distributed by the company. Anyone could be writing the posts but their appearance on the blog has the stamp of the company by fact of its puplication.

   In the end, the stated author — in this case Scuderi as a corporate entity, has to stand by the words, no matter who actually writes them– and they do.

   For myself I prefer personal blogs with individuals behind the words, but there is lots of room for variation in methods, style and format.

6. Todd Van Hoosear

   27|Apr|2007 6

   Bryan,

   This very issue came up in February’s Boston PRSA session on blogging. It’s one of the very few areas in which I have any real disagreement with what’s probably a majority of PR bloggers.

   Greg PC had a good recap of the event here: http://www.ucredible.com/OTR/2007/02/27/prsa-boston-–-social-media-panel-22607/. But he missed my “disclosure” statement and disagreement entirely. So I blogged about this to clear the air and set the record straight: http://topazpartners.blogspot.com/2007/03/entropy-social-media-and-communications.html

   I think Tim provides a good defense in his first comment above. The only question remaining is whether Topaz is at fault for not disclosing our work for Scuderi on the Scuderi blog itself–we’ve certainly been very upfront about both our philosophy and our Scuderi work on our own blog. My argument is that it’s a) not misrepresentation, and b) it’s not really relevant. If we were ghostwriting an entire blog under someone else’s name, or flogging, then call us on it. Instead we’re reporting news on behalf of the client, and a year from now, it many be another agency doing the same thing (though I hope and expect not).

   I think, and I argued this at the PRSA event, that we need to get past the idea that blogs are somehow a protected species–somehow operating under a different set of ethical guidelines than the rest of the web. Five years from now, will we still be calling blogs blogs, or will they have been completely intergrated into the rest of the web? I cite the AgencyNext website as an example–http://www.agencynext.com/–which for the record took the same side as Topaz on this debate (though if Mr. Hager was in the audience he didn’t credit me for raising the issue in the first place).

   We look at the Scuderi blog as a news service–more RSS feed than blog–and do not feel like we are doing anyone a disservice by not disclosing the editorial service behind the posts.

   Sterling Hager’s right–we’d be poor PR people if we couldn’t write on behalf of our clients. How is writing a press release for a client any different than a blog? Okay, let me restate that, how is writing a SOCIAL MEDIA release–which is ideally better structured, more authentic, written in a better tone, etc–any different from a blog post?

   When I raised this issue in several comments and posts, I got no negative feedback. I’m still waiting, and I’d love your thoughts if Sterling and I are way off on this…

7. Todd Van Hoosear

   27|Apr|2007 7

   Terry,

   Your comment that “social media demands transparency and authenticity of voice” is true not just for blogs, but for all corporate communications. As an ideal, it’s great. But from a practical standpoint, how far do you take it?

   We PR folks write press releases all the time. Do we need to add bylines there?

   We write white papers and case studies all the time? Do we need to add bylines to them?

   A good PR agency’s hands are on all forms of marketing and PR collateral. What’s the limit of disclosure?

   If our participation could somehow possibly introduce bias into the process, of course it needs to be disclosed. If, for example, we had stock in Scuderi, or worked for a governmental agency or lobbyist, then disclosure is warranted. But other than that, what purpose does it serve other than to actually hurt the authenticity of voice for Scuderi?

   People don’t read the Scuderi blog because of its transparency or authenticity. They read it because we present relevant timely information about Scuderi and air hybrid technologies. How does authorship detract from that? The proof is in the pudding, and people are definitely eating the pudding.

   Again, we’ve been exceedingly honest on our blog and publicly about our work with the company and its blog. Anybody who can get to Google can find out about the relationship easily. We don’t put it on Scuderi’s blog because we don’t think people will care.

   I guess one experiment would be to disclose our participation on the blog and see if readership drops. I doubt it would…

8. Kami Huyse

   27|Apr|2007 8

   I have to agree that there is lots of room for using technology in innovative ways as a publishing tool. However, even press releases and press rooms have the contact names and numbers of real people. The Air Hybrid Blog has a form, which most people are leary of using. Think, “I fear being added to a spam list.” There is no “back channel” for this “blog,” which frankly makes it not very useful for connecting with stakeholders.

9. Ed Lee

   27|Apr|2007 9

   http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20070426.html

10. David Jones

    27|Apr|2007 10

    Perhaps the issue here is that the site is characterized as a blog. If it were considered a website then this content would be fine.

    We’ve been conditioned to look at blogs as personal or group journals that, most times, accepts comments and trackbacks as ways to stimulate further discussion about particular topics and points of view.

    Transparency is expected and authors are generally identified.

    Perhaps I’m splitting hairs, but I look at this site as more of an interactive newsroom that allows comments because it’s using a blog platform. That being said, if I do leave a comment, who answers me?

    My take is that a blog is to this site as a newspaper is to a newsletter. The form may be the same, but the experience is different. Perhaps we need a new name for this sort of thing? News-blog? Nlog? Blog-letter?

11. Tim Allik

    27|Apr|2007 11

    What you said, David!

    I’d like to thank Bryan for pointing out that the “about us” page was useless on airhybridblog.com. I’ve updated it to include business and media contact information. In addition, I put Topaz Partners in the footer. The old information was obsolete.

12. Kami Huyse

    27|Apr|2007 12

    Tim; Much better I think. Also, why not just an e-mail in the contact us page? I know IT loves these forms to cut down on corporate spam, but they aren’t very friendly to the user.

13. Tim Allik

    27|Apr|2007 13

    Good call, Kami. I just updated the page with all sorts of contact info. and got rid of the form.

14. Michael O'Connor Clarke

    27|Apr|2007 14

    Perhaps I’m being a bit of an old-school purist, but I have a fairly simple response to this.

    It’s not a blog.

    Without wanting to wade too deep into all the multi-layered, subjective, and subtle interpretations of what a blog is or isn’t, I’d respectfully suggest that using blogging software to provide “a central portal for news and information relating to the development of air hybrid engine technology” doesn’t make it a blog.

    This debate has raged across the ‘Net for as long as I’ve been blogging, and it’s one that is becoming both more complex and, frankly, less important (in some respects) as mass awareness of blogging becomes more widespread.

    It’s similar, in some ways, to the arguments that used to bubble up over people’s casual confusion of the terms “Internet” and “Web”. As recently as 2002, a friend of mine still found it necessary to point out, in the footnotes of his book, that this conflation of the two terms, while convenient, was technically and historically inaccurate.

    The same gradual evolution of understanding is now happening in the blogosphere – with people’s apprehension of the meaning of “blog” becoming both diluted and broadened. I can’t say I’m fully comfortable with the thought of calling a corporate website a “blog” yet, but I understand the historical inevitability of it all.

    As for the Scuderi Group site, well… it’s blog-like, in architecture and design, sure. It uses reverse-chronological order, has comments, permalinks, trackbacks. But it lacks what is, to me, the single most important defining characteristic of a blog qua blog:

    The clear, unedited, personal voice of a real human being.

    Having said that, there’s nothing really wrong with the Scuderi site. It’s useful and interesting information, in fact. It may be astroturf, but it’s not as egregious or clueless as many I’ve seen.

    To Todd’s point, above, I think disclosing your participation would be a very positive step and, yes, I don’t think readership would be impacted in the slightest. Quite the opposite: I think you’d do yourselves and your client a reputational favour by disclosing that this is provided as a paid service by a third party.

    As Scuderi Group is all about developing and promoting clean technology, so too should your disclosure policy be clean and above board.

15. Michael O'Connor Clarke

    27|Apr|2007 15

    Ah. That’ll teach me to post long, rambly responses. I see some of the things that concerned me about the “About” page have already been updated. This is good.

16. Doug Haslam

    27|Apr|2007 16

    Now this is social media at work– concerns raised, defenses made, changes wrought, issues discussed.

    And no one has been banned (yet)

17. Bryan

    27|Apr|2007 17

    Wonderful to see this discussion moving forward, and leading to some tangible improvements on the site.

    We could still debate whether this is actually a blog or more of a corporate newsroom that happens to use a blogging platform (good points on that, David and Michael). If it’s the former, I’d argue that more formal disclosure is needed. If it’s the latter, then probably not.

    Once the Topaz guys talk about this issue some more on today’s edition of PRobecast, I’ll add a link to it or directly include the relevant audio snippet on this blog.

18. Doug Haslam

    27|Apr|2007 18

    The podcast is up, with your comment and discussion PRobecast #13

19. Doug Haslam

    27|Apr|2007 19

    Oops, the link didn’t catch: http://topazpartners.blogspot.com/2007/04/probecast-13-topaz-partners-podcast.html

20. Common Sense PR - The Ethics of Ghost Blogging

    29|Apr|2007 20

    [...] the response by Topaz Partners to Bryan Person’s criticism of their work for Scuderi Group’s Air Hybrid [...]

21. Mike Driehorst

    30|Apr|2007 21

    The medium dictates the message. (See my link for a post on that point.)

    Just because PR has ghost-written items in the past does not necessarily mean it’s the right protocal going forward. (As in investments, past performance does not guarantee future results.)

    If PR pros know their stuff, they adapt the message to the medium — that is how the audience can best receive it, and expects it. That’s part of effective communication.

    Ghost-blogging is wrong. (Though, it is growing, unfortunately.) And, authorship is needed.

    Mike

22. Doug Haslam

    30|Apr|2007 22

    It’s not so much the medium (though you cannot discount it completely), but the audience that dictates the message. That’s what i like best about the arguments Kami brought up. Is it a blog? Answer that according to your own definition.

    What is important to the client is that they are serving their audience, and to my understanding (I am not personally involved with this client), that has been the reaction from both client and audience so far.

23. Doug Haslam

    30|Apr|2007 23

    New post from Topaz on the blog, or whatever you would like to call it
    http://topazpartners.blogspot.com/2007/04/topaz-turmoil.html#comments

24. Doug Haslam

    30|Apr|2007 24

    Better version of the URL: New post from Topaz on the blog, or whatever you would like to call it
    http://topazpartners.blogspot.com/2007/04/topaz-turmoil.html

    1st one brought you directly to comments

25. John Cass

    30|Apr|2007 25

    To me it would be better not to ghostwrite a blog. I think part of the charm of blogging is having a personal connection with the writer. As several commentators have suggestions, maybe the website is not a blog, but a news site.

26. Mike Driehorst

    01|May|2007 26

    Doug H: By stating the medium dictates the message, guess I really meant that, if we are truly communication professionals, we communicate with our audience by which means (i.e., medium) they prefer. So, we customize medium and message (more or less) based on how best to reach the audience.
    Mike

27. Doug Haslam

    01|May|2007 27

    Mike,

    Gotcha– in the case of the Air Hybrid blog, it is probably best said that it makes use of the blogging platform to extend the corporate newsroom. I was talking to the Topaz team about the project, and that’s pretty much how it was conceived. The blogging platform gives them more flexibility on instant feedback, and the response has been tremendous, they have have been fielding calls from auto industry companies that are exactly the kinds of investors/partners/customers they are seeking through their PR and marketing efforts.

    As I said in Twitter last night on defining blog: “..define your content, your audience, and your goals. Then call it what you want with confidence.”

    To John’s point: the personal connection is paramount in most blogging efforts. I prefer it myself, but again it depends on the goals of the blog and the blogger/company. In this case, a more impersonal approach is working extremely well.

    Last: every time we get into quoting Marshall McLuhan, I get nervous that I am going to turn around and McLuhan himself will be tut-tutting me.

28. Ambiguous yes, ghostblogging no - CorpBlawg

    02|May|2007 28

    [...] a look at this bit on alleged ghostblogging, recently posted by Bryan Person and at the comments by Eric Eggertson and [...]

29. Disruptive Conversations

    22|May|2007 29

    Ghost blogging and the coming end of the Golden Age of blogging and transparency…

    Let it neverbe forgotThat there once was a spotThat for one brief shining momentWas known as Camelot. – from the musical Camelot There has been a great conversation raging these past few months in the PR/marketing section of the blogosphere…

30. cutiger95

    01|Jul|2007 30

    Ghostblogging much like ghost content writing has taken off on the web. Not many people have the skill or the writing desire to continously post to clients sites and to do work needed for writing articles.

    Blogs much like articles need to reach the client and to be useful. So does it matter that the President really doesn’t write his own speeches and that their are speach writers present.

    Company blogs are much the same in my humble opinion.

31. Doug Haslam » Blog Archive » Podcast! Topaz Partners PRobecast #19: Ghostblogging, Olympics logo and more

    04|Feb|2008 31

    [...] chapter. Todd tells us he has the answer to the Ghostblogging dilemma that we first talked about several weeks [...]

32. Finding Time to Blog : Virtual Impax

    24|Apr|2008 32

    [...] a ghostwriter may be a new thought for you and your blog.  There are those who don’t feel blog ghostwriting is practical or ethical.  However, I don’t think it’s any LESS ethical than hiring a copy writer to compose [...]