The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #225: March 22, 2007

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #225: March 22, 2007

Content summary: Another bumper listener episode; Lee Hopkins reports with advice on broadband for Irish listeners; Shel from Las Vegas on social media tools for recruiting; Google searches for European lobbyists; survey finds challenges for podcasters; product launches in Second Life from Calvin Klein and Reebok/Scarlett Johansson; when will the 1 billionth blog spam arrive?; Dan York reports from Cairo, Egypt; listeners’ comments discussion (including more broadband advice); Bumrush The Charts today; a music pitch from Ethereal; and more.

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Show notes for March 22, 2007

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Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 66-minute podcast recorded live from Wokingham, Berkshire, England, and almost live from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

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So, until Monday March 26…

Posted by neville on 03/22 at 06:04 PM

  1. Another great show, Neville, though it’s always better when you and Shel can be together live. Particular thanks to Stephen Turcotte for reminding me about the topic of ghost blogging.

    I wanted to provide a ghostwriter’s perspective on the subject. To me, it makes no sense for a CEO to hire someone else to write a blog which is meant to contain that CEO’s personal opinions, experiences, and musings. In order for the ghostwriter to get to know the CEO and his industry, and then to write in the CEO’s “voice,” the CEO would have to put in more time and effort than it would take to write the blog himself.

    Hiring a ghostwriter does not mean less work. It means less writing. And a ghostwriter who can “channel” your ideas and write so your own friends don’t know it wasn’t you is expensive.

    A person who isn’t writing in your voice isn’t really a ghostwriter, and it doesn’t make sense to hire someone without that skill to ghostwrite your blog, either, because you’re going to get caught out pretty quickly, and any effort to establish greater rapport with the public is going to backfire.

    But not all blogs are expressions of personality, or not to that extent. My own FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder and Author-ized Articles blogs are primarily collections of articles. The tone of the articles is less formal than if I were writing for print, and I occasionally mention something specific about my own life, business, or clients, but neither of those blogs is about my personal experience. Instead, they provide information about two areas in which I have some expertise.

    Publishing articles online is a well-known SEO technique. A blog is a simple means to publish articles on a regular basis. A company which needs “Google juice” would do well to publish an article blog on an appropriate subject. But not every company can dedicate people to writing articles on a daily basis.

    I work as one of a team of ghost bloggers for just such a blog. The client is one I work with closely on other projects, so I’ve come to know their business pretty well. Sometimes I think of subjects; sometimes they do. I write the piece and send it in, and they revise it as they see fit. My posts go out under two or three different names; I don’t think there’s any effort to establish a particular tone for any one member of the company.

    I don’t know any of the other bloggers or even how many there are, but together we and our client produce a damn fine blog which is getting a lot of link love and ranking high in Google.

    I can’t tell you to go check it out, because I’m under an NDA. I’ve suggested to my client that it would be in their own interests to have some kind of disclosure on their site, even something as vague as “We get some help writing this blog,” but so far they’ve chosen not to. I may not think that’s a wise decision, but I certainly don’t think it’s immoral.

    I think it’s important to consider the purpose and style of a blog and before deciding whether to get help writing it, and what kind of help to get if you do. Blanket statements about whether ghost blogging is acceptable are like questions asking “Are blogs a credible source of information.” The answer—which I’m sure Shel will appreciate—is “It depends.”

    Posted by Sallie Goetsch (rhymes with "sketch")  on  03/23  at  05:32 PM

  2. Excellent points on the topic of ghostblogging Sallie.  I find I can’t agree with the black and white view that ghostblogging is *always* wrong. 

    I recently <a >blogged </a>about this issue, as I’m currently dealing with it, not from the C-Level suite, but with a web-design client of mine who is a tradesman, running his own business. 

    For him, the issue is that he is just not a writer. To get his idea onto paper is tricky enough, let alone communicate it clearly and in an interesting way.  He is much better at communicating verbally then through the written word.  So he employs a ghostblogger. 

    Truth be told, the final written words are truer to his own voice than he would ever be able write on his own.  And isn’t *that* what we want to achieve?

    Posted by Rob Clark  on  03/25  at  01:19 PM

  3. Re: Dan York on file sharing.  Try Dropboks (http://www.dropboks.com/).  This allows you to upload & download files to your own private file area, i.e. a sort of virtual disk site.  You can’t share files with others yet (other than by giving them your login & password), but this is a feature that’s promised.

    Posted by Martyn Davies  on  03/25  at  02:36 PM

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