Ghost Writing for A Client in the Social Mediasphere

We’re often asked by a client “can you ghost write for me, cause we a) don’t have the time or b) no one here is a good writer.” Our answer is that we’re happy to do some writing, but never as a “ghost.” It would certainly be easy to do so, we’ve seen it done. We’ve also seen how it can bite back. Hard.

There are several ramifications to ghost writing for a company blog. Some of these we note are;

• Legal: As a ‘ghost” writer you are “representative” of the clients “voice” and there are potential legal hazards that could lead to trouble for the writer and the client. This should be discussed with the client and indemnification written into a contract if this avenue is pursued.
• Consistency: if you’re ghost writing for a blog, how long will the client want you to write for? There may be issues around the consistency of tone & manner, length and detail. Once you stop, and a client may not have the patience required for a blog to become effective, there can be consistency issues.
• Honesty & Reputation: Social Media is about emotion (see a good post on Collective Thoughts on this issue) and as such, when people read a blog and discover it was a ghost writer, especially for a business, they may feel “spun” and you may subsequently be coaching a client through a Social Media crisis situation. This perhaps, is the most important point, for reputation is everything and this is compounded in Social Media.

In our case, we are open about who we are when writing on a blog for a client, and why we’re doing the writing. We engage in the discussion and if the client is just engaging in Social Media it puts a more human face on the client, avoiding the One Way communication syndrome pre-Web 2.0 days.

What might you add to this list? Do you disagree? What is your experience?

(Author: Giles Crouch, Managing Partner)