What’s the best way to outsource a blog? Is there any good way?
It’s a topic of debate among PR pros, marketers, and companies thinking of outsourcing their social media. Copyblogger recently raised the ghostblogging issue and Todd Defren explored it in his excellent series on social media ethical dilemmas.
Disclaimer: My company advises clients on this topic. I’m throwing this out there to generate a broader examination of these issues.
Three Blog Outsourcing Options and a Bunch of Questions
Here’s the setup: A client recently asked me to write a blog for the company. We had a discussion about what exactly that would entail. Who will be identified as the blog’s author? Will anyone be identified? Would I be ghost-writing? Do you want me to be the author? How will other social media tools fit in?
We outlined three possible scenarios:
Ghost Blog. In this scenario, a person inside the company (likely the CEO) would be identified as the blog’s author. Posts would be written by a copywriter (in this case, me) and reviewed/approved by the named blogger before publication.
Corporate Blog, No Author Listed. Under this option, I would write the posts, but no author would be named.
Agency (Me) as Blogger. In this scenario, I would be the company’s official blogger. I would write my own posts, interact with readers in the comments, and connect with readers on other social platforms.
There are other options, of course — I could train the CEO to blog, or we could create a multi-author blog written by employees — but let’s say for discussion’s sake that these options weren’t viable.
Which of the three scenarios would you choose?
Implications of Outsourcing a Blog
Each of the three scenarios had implications. The biggest questions weren’t about the blog, but about what happens when we add other social media tools to complement the blog. Here are some of the questions we explored:
Ghost Blog
- Is ghost-blogging ethical? What about ghost-Tweeting?
- If ghost-blogging is fair game, but ghost-Tweeting is off-limits, how could we use Twitter to attract blog readers?
- Who would respond to comments?
- Would the CEO comment on third-party blogs? How?
- Can a ghost-blog be effective in spite of the challenges to relationship-building?
Corporate Blog, No Author Listed
- Will people want to read a blog with no author?
- Will we be able to build relationships with readers if there’s no author?
- Will we be less likely to generate conversation and traffic from social media sites?
- If we get comments on a post, will we respond as “admin”?
- Would a nameless/faceless Twitter account to promote the blog work?
Agency (Me) as Blogger
- Is it in the company’s best interest to have a non-employee as a blogger?
- Should we disclose that I’m not an employee? Does it matter?
- Should I use my personal Twitter account to promote the blog? Do I want to? Should I create a new (secondary) Twitter account?
- Can I/should I be a blogger for multiple companies at one time? What are my obligations to each?
- Is this an effective strategy?
Debate It
What would you do? Would you outsource your company’s blog? Under what scenarios? Weigh in with a comment.