Ghosting along: juniors write CEO blog posts

Social TNT blogger, Christopher Lynn, posed the question of blog posts. In his scenario, a stressed exec would facilitate the writing of posts, or commenting on forums, or monitoring of Twitter or Friendfeed, in his or her absence, and later return to add flavour to the work. Public response to the proposal was generally negative, as it would be dishonest without full disclosure. An honest CEO would add, “Written by CEO and Second in Command”, or something like that, to the finished work.

Picture Credit: Toothpaste for Dinner

The absence of executive voices from blogging and twittering and social conversation online, especially in connection with new brands, is such a shame. And yet, they are so busy behind the scenes putting their experience in SEM to commercial use, that the teaching application of their time is often a secondary duty.

Here at MediaVision, we don`t believe in ghost writing, as social media is about honest conversations. That`s why we brainstorm lists of ideas for blog posts, coach commenting, practise daily research in key blogs and monitor forums online. In this way, the essence of MediaVision is constantly in our posts. Our execs facilitate, rather than ghost write, the publishing of our news online.

Perhaps ghost writing blog posts is actually part of a larger issue - that is, that the internet does not make the money it should make from its publishing and advertising ventures. And that`s why big CEOs are allowing their second-in-commands to publish for them, or to comment for them, or to ghost write blogs for them. But all that is soon to change, and soon newspapers will be able to know who is reading their pages, and they will be able to advertise for those audiences. I`ll wager the top dogs won`t be ghosting for long.