{"id":380,"date":"2007-06-07T14:18:25","date_gmt":"2007-06-07T18:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/?p=380"},"modified":"2007-06-07T14:18:25","modified_gmt":"2007-06-07T18:18:25","slug":"ghostwriting-warren-and-yippee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2007\/06\/07\/ghostwriting-warren-and-yippee\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghostwriting, Warren and Yippee"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I wrote last month<\/a>, I strongly believe that ghostwriting is not appropriate for blogs. Others disagree, and while I was out of pocket the past week or so, the conversation<\/a> took flight<\/a> again<\/p>\n

Let’s be crystal clear:<\/strong> ghostwriting is when someone writes for another person and the item is published under the other person’s name. In books, you might see it as "By Very Famous Person, with Known Ghostwriter," although you may also see the "By, with" construct with co-authors when one is more well-known or made a greater contribution than the other. In blogs, you are not likely to see the ghostwriter’s name at all; the item is posted by the "author."<\/p>\n

While ghostwriting is a legitimate approach to communications vehicles like the CEO letter in the annual report, magazine article or a speech, it is not a good approach for blogging. As Shel Holtz <\/a>points out, blogging is a new<\/em> communications channel that is supposed to remove barriers, not create new ones:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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[But] a blog by an identified senior executive is different. By blogging, the executive is specifically saying, \u201cThis is me engaged in a conversation with you.\u201d While everyone knows that the quotes in the press release are fabricated, and that the speech was penned by a speechwriter, there is an expectation when someone reads and comments on Jonathan Schwartz\u2019s blog<\/a> that he\u2019s engaged directly with Sun Microsystem\u2019s CEO, not some anonymous proxy. When people learn that somebody other than the CEO is the blog\u2019s true author, it will serve only to deepen the distrust and cynicism that characterizes most peoples\u2019 existing perceptions of business.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That doesn’t mean that if your CEO can’t or won’t write, you can’t have a company blog or participate on blogs.\u00a0 You just need to take a different approach. Shel mentions some possibilities in his post. Here are a few others.\u00a0 <\/p>\n