Five Benefits Your Ghost-Blogger Can Never Deliver

In nature there is no right or wrong, only consequences.

Ghost-blogging isn’t misrepresentation. It’s a missed opportunity.

Even worse, if your business blog is ghost-written, it’s a missed opportunity in which you’re investing precious marketing dollars.

The mistake arises when business leaders assume blogging is the latest way to make marketing communications appear chic and up-to-date. As a result, they approach their blog like every other marketing tool in their arsenal. It becomes another receptacle for promoting the corporate message, only with the addition of a “personal face” slapped over it.

A ghost-written corporate blog often reflects the same me-too marketing attitude that leads to cookie-cutter web copy, ersatz press releases and boilerplate brochures. The rush to join the blogosphere translates to the blog’s regular content: Rather than take time to develop a personal voice and perspective, executives hire someone else to crank out content under the assumption that high-frequency posts indicates an abundance of wisdom and authority.

Social media advocates have spent a lot of pixels to call ghost-blogging inauthentic, and even unethical. These charges seem a bit dramatic to me. It’s enough to call ghost-blogging ineffective.

First, I tend to doubt that most ghost-written executive blogs attract a loyal following or deeply engaged readers. Even if they do, the most important relationship on a blog is between readers and content, not readers and the by-lined author. That’s why people say content, not authenticity, is king.

So, I won’t go so far as to say ghost-blogging never works. Some executives work closely with their ghosts to develop a strategic and uniform message for their business blog. They remain invested in the content, and take ownership for it.

The problem is that there are far more effective ways to communicate the corporate message, especially with the help of ghost-writing talent.

Regardless of how it’s applied, blogging is by nature a personality-driven medium. Yes, content matters. But take a look at which blogs influence a large, loyal and chatty following. The majority of them aren’t ghost-written company mouthpieces. Rather, they showcase the immediate and personal perspective of a charismatic blogger, and his or her following.

So, the problem isn’t blogging, or ghost-writers. It’s combining the two, which puts them at odds with each other. It’s a misapplication of marketing tactics, not strategy.

If your goal is to increase the visibility, credibility and authority of your business or its executives, and you wish to leverage the talents and logistical benefits of a ghost-writer, then the most appropriate marketing medium is an emailed newsletter.

Regularly emailed e-newsletters allow all of the logistical benefits of a ghost-writer, and carry far more value as a marketing tool than a blog. Among the benefits:

1. A more realistic schedule: Whether published weekly, monthly or quarterly, newsletters are simpler to plan and coordinate with a ghost-writer. Also, their regularity promotes more focused communications: Most businesses can find one or two items of genuine interest to report every month.
2. More active outreach: Rather than driving people to your blog, a newsletter brings content to the people.
3. A well-defined funnel: Since most newsletters require registration, they can more clearly define the scope and characteristics of people at the top of your marketing-to-sales funnel.
4. Better tracking: Blog analytics tell you a lot about your audience, but a hyperlink-rich newsletter can tell you more about what motivates individual audience members to take action.
5. No comment: The authenticity issue with ghost-bloggers congeals in a blog’s comments section, where readers can engage with the perceived author. No matter how talented your ghost-writer, he or she is poorly qualified to interact on your behalf. A newsletter not only eliminates this issue, it relegates any unwelcome reader perspective to the privacy of an email response.

Bottom line: Ghost-blogging is a symptom, not a disease. The disease is ineffective application of sound marketing tools. Fortunately, there’s a cure: Put your ghost-writer to work where he or she won’t create unnecessary and often counterproductive layers between you and the audience.

When Should Content Be Free?

Photo credit: kalandrakas

I’m not asking. Ann Handley of MarketingProfs is. Specifically, she raised the question last week on OPEN Forum, an oddly titled site since it’s only open to American Express cardholders. Even so, I recommend reading Ann’s post here. You’re welcome to offer your own thoughts below (credit cards welcome, but not required).

To summarize, Ann correctly posits two approaches to distributing your eBooks and white papers:

1. You can require interested readers to register their name, email and contact information before they access your content, or
2. You can offer content free for download, thereby encouraging readers to share it and hopefully turn it viral, thereby generating maximum exposure for minimum expense

I can see how the latter possibility would appeal to marketing types. Who would turn down bragging rights for an article that’s become the darling of the chatocracy? As Ann explains, marketers are disinclined to hide content behind a registration wall because “the real goal is visibility with your audience.”

I respectfully disagree. Visibility is the mission of advertising, not marketing. Admittedly there’s some overlap here. But the desire for content to “go viral” falls squarely on advertising’s side of the advertising-marketing Venn diagram.

Content goes viral because it promotes a shared emotion, experience or attitude, which is fundamentally what advertising aims to achieve for a brand. In a sense, the role of advertising is to feed marketing, and the role of marketing is to feed sales.

So, is content more valuable when it’s behind a registration wall, or when it’s set free to propagate on the internet.

I’m wondering why this is an either/or question. In researching this post, I referred to blog posts and slideshares of Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. Interestingly, I found he cited two almost identical statistics that seem to contradict one another.

In the first, Brian wrote on his blog that registered content could drive away 75 to 85 percent of potential leads.

In the second, he notes in a slideshare that 80% of marketing expenditures on lead generation are lost, ignored or discarded by sales. Among the top reasons, he cites, are that leads aren’t properly qualified or prioritized.

So, maybe the question should be how to qualify leads without scaring away prospective customers.

The answer isn’t a matter of which approach is better, but rather which approach applies, and when.

It’s unwise, for instance, to demand registration for content early in the buying process when customers are beginning to gather information about you and your competitors. High-level perspective, such as industry articles, buyer’s guides, web copy and case studies help customers place your value against a larger context.

This content should be offered gratis.

Make it easy for prospects to get educated about what questions to ask. You build trust by making it safe to learn those questions from you.

As customers move further along the buying process, their questions become more knowledgeable and specific. They’re better equipped to recognize content of value to their research. If you’ve already built trust by helping them learn what questions to ask, they’re more likely to submit a name or an email in exchange for more specialized content.

Carroll makes an excellent point about minimizing prospects’ commitment during the process. He recommends using a series of “micro-conversions:” requiring an email for a white paper here, a job title for an article there. Eventually, by enabling prospects to educate themselves, you’re also compiling a profile to help guide sales to close the deal.

Friday Link Love

Photo credit: dawnzy58

Leading this week’s Link Love is blogger Dave Fleet’s open invitation to lurkers – i.e. readers who frequent a blog, but rarely ever leave a comment – to come out of the shadows and say “hello.”

Since Dave frequently writes about ghost-blogging, I’ve frequently read his posts – often long after comments are timely. Even so, that qualifies me as a lurker. So, I gave him a shout out in the comments section.

Now I’m inviting you to do the same. Any regular readers out there? If not, that’s cool too. I won’t feel as obligated to stick so doggedly to my weekly blogging schedule.

Speaking of ghost-bloggers, Mark Schaefer tackles the issue again, only this time he proposes some ground rules. If you must hire a ghost-blogger, Mark suggests, at least try to do it legitimately.

I respect his attempt, but I felt it was an academic argument. The underlying problem with ghost-blogging is a misapplication of strategy, not tactics. It isn’t merely unethical marketing, it’s ineffective marketing. Have your ghostwriter draft you a nice e-newsletter instead.

Interestingly, Mark’s next post introduces what could be the blogosphere’s first Authenticity Policy, which he and his blog’s readers helped inspire. Drafted and posted by Anne Giles Clelland, President and CEO of Handshake Media in Blacksburg, VA, the policy is posted here.

There’s social media thought leaders, and then there’s just social media leaders. Full props to Ms. Clelland.

How to spot a writer
From authentic bloggers, we go to authentic marketing writers. A post by John White on the aptly named How to Hire a Writer blog, recommends you ask prospective freelancers about their method.

Are you a writer? Then you have a method, right? …RIGHT?

If not, you’d better go commit John’s post to memory, because the toothpaste is out of the tube now.

Last but not least, Corey Freeman, teenage wunderkind gives props on her Writer7 blog to another wunderkind, blogger Alex Fraiser, who with his wunderkind co-blogger, Seth, publishes Blogussion.

The post on Blogussion that caught Corey’s attention, and that I’ve since bookmarked, offers a list of 18 articles to help you write better blog headlines. That sort of exhaustive resource could only appeal to a generation that doesn’t yet feel time is their enemy

Seriously though, I’m digging this new crew of bloggers, and what they’re bringing…

Friday Link Love

Photo caption: erin MC hammer

The topics that attracted my attention this week range from quitting, abusing friends and family and agonizing over how to best apologize. Could be time for professional counseling.

I’m clearly being a little tongue-in-cheek. It’s how I stave off the creeping blackness of existential angst.

Tom Martin, however, has an alternative cure. For anyone who is sick of putting up the good fight, or who wonders when their day in the sun will come, he offers the following gem:

“When you feel like saying ‘I quit’ — don’t.”

That’s why God (and Tom, as it happens) gave us Eminem evidently. But if Eminem doesn’t do it for you, then check the comments under Tom’s post instead.

Marketing consultant and barroom wingman, Greg Donahue, takes a moment this week to remember the value of family and friends – especially when you need to break out of corporate group think and test the efficacy of your latest ad or direct mail piece on real people. I know that’s what my mom is for.

And, not to appear sycophantic, but I’m recommending another post by Peter Bowerman, of Well-Fed Writer fame. This time he’s asking, “What’s the right way to apologize when you screw up?”

I personally think it would have been funnier to ask “What’s the wrong way to apologize?” But that’s why Peter makes the big bucks…

Finally, talking about what’s funny, I bookmarked and then neglected to recommend last week a post by Olivier Blanchard on The Brand Builder blog entitled Fear and Loathing in Social Media: The 10 Rules of corporate denial and blatant overreaction.

As a little sampling, here’s #10: “Maybe the easiest thing is to wait and see what your competitors will do, then maybe do that.”

Have a good weekend…

Friday Link Love (already?)

Photo credit: Niffty

It’s been a challenging week, and I have the entire flat to myself tonight. And all that stands between me and the bottle of Tanqueray in my freezer is Friday Link Love post.

So, I’ll be brief…

Evidently, my post on ghost-blogging didn’t put the issue to rest for good and for all. It came up twice this week already.

First, on Wednesday, marketing communications pro, Mark Schaefer, tackles the issue with a man-on-the-street approach – only the street, in this case, is his blog. He asks “Can you out-source authenticity?” In fact, he asks a lot of questions in his post. And Mark wants answers. So, if you can read, go put in your two cents.

I’ve decided the ghost-blogging question has less to do with ethics as it does with effectiveness. I realized this while reading the post and comments under Jason Fall’s The Ethics, Or Lack Thereof, Of Ghost Blogging.

In essence, Jason writes at great length to clarify exactly what we mean by ghost-blogging versus ghost-writing until he concludes, in part, that ghost-writers aren’t wrong, ghostwriting is.

Before my pingback elicits a massive clarification from a purple-necked Jason, let me just say that I’m oversimplifying to the point of being flip and you should go read Jason’s whole post yourself. And don’t neglect the comments either, because there’s some good old Socratic dialectic going on there… Namely my trenchant conclusion that ghost-blogging is a symptom, not the disease. If a business feels it needs to hire a ghost-blogger to write for the CEO, it’s a good bet the blog (and business) lacks a clear marketing strategy.

See? You guys make me smarter.

The Nouriel Roubini of social media
Finally, while most of the Bloggerati were attending Social South today, David Spinks damn near stampeded the rest of the social media sphere by asking “Is This Social Media Bubble Deadly?”

What bubble, you ask? Read the comments to find out, and get a drink first because there’s a lot of them.

Friday Link Love

Photo credit: Nganguyen

There was a lot of good content on the blogosphere this week, and it was all I could do just to keep current on my reading. (Busy work week here.)

The news on newspapers
I managed some brief comments here and there, but the only post that still has me thinking was Leo Babauta’s “8 Valuable Lessons Newspapers Must Learn from Bloggers to Survive.” Part of the reason the post resonated with me was because I learned this week that our local paper now charges $250 for an obituary. Obits used to be a free service that newspapers provided – sort of like, you know, news.

Personally, I feel any newspaper that charges $250 to announce the death of a local loved one deserves whatever obsolescence is coming to it. It’s a parasitical business model. Blogs aren’t killing newspapers. Newspapers are killing newspapers.

Writing on writing
Other recommended reading includes Kickbutt Writing Skills Still One of the Most Effective Marketing Strategies, on Peter Bowerman’s seminal Well-Fed Writer Blog. The title is self-explanatory and if I had had more time, I might have argued that kickbutt self-marketing skills come before kickbutt writing skills – except I’m pretty sure Peter already knows that. Also, kickbutt writing gets you noticed only insomuch as an absence of mistakes gets you noticed. Good writing is really a sort of passive virtue compared to saving clients time, money and brain cells.

Blogging on blogging
Sonia Simone of Copyblogger.com offers some genuinely good reminders of bad blogging habits in The 7 Deadly Sins of Blogging. One omission under Boorishness is abusing other bloggers for self-righteous criticism, like this new blogger did.

Conversation about conversation
And lastly, I’m am not a big fan of the celebrity interview – and Danny Brown is sort of a social media celebrity – but blogger Jay Baer does a pretty good Q&A that reveals, among other things, that Mr. Brown recommends spending 20% posting on your own blog and 80% commenting on others. Sounds like someone I know…

Legitimizing the Corporate Blog (and Ghost-Blogger)

Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital

Earlier, I defined corporate blogging as a new marketing medium that invites direct, authentic and personal interaction with the corporate authority. That definition places access as the central value of the corporate blog. If it was just about the posted content, then there’s nothing to distinguish a corporate blog from a press release.

Unfortunately, as a rule, CEO’s and their ilk have little time to compose thoughtful content – much less respond to comments – which invites the impulse to delegate. But delegation raises its own issues.

For one, the C-level blog loses marketing cache and credibility with each rung it descends down the ladder. Leveraging a ghost-writer, meanwhile, compromises the content’s authenticity, and undermines the ability to respond to comments.

So, by traditional standards, ghostwriters have no legitimate use on the corporate or company blog. At best, they make it an ineffective marketing platform, at worst… Well, just go here.

It would appear then that the corporate-level blog is doomed to failure, beset by the conflicting interests of credibility, legitimacy and the executive’s higher priorities. That prediction, however, is only half right…

The fact is, the corporate-level blog isn’t going anywhere. No need to go out on a limb to make the following three predictions:

1. There will continue to be the aberrant CEO or CTO who finds the time and voice to prove the C-level blog can be done effectively
2. This will encourage hundreds if not thousands of other corporate execs to launch me-too blogs that will remain largely unread, and lastly,
3. As long as there continues to be corporate blogs, there will continue to be corporate ghost-bloggers

In other words, corporate blogs built on C-Level vanity are doomed to mediocrity, then obscurity, and then failure.

I’ve always been fond of the quote, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” So, I’d like to propose a fourth possibility, one that could reinvent the corporate blog as a genuine marketing instrument that generates credibility, authority and a loyal readership. And, best of all, it enables content to be delegated freely and legitimately.

An immodest proposal
First, let’s discard the notion that a corporate blog must be written by a C-level blogger. Admittedly, the Corner Office can offer a unique perspective into the company, the brand and the industry in which it competes. Yet, this model really defines a celebrity blog, not a corporate blog. It’s personality driven.

One alternative is to pull focus on the CEO, and create a company blog. I view this as more of a B2C platform, however, since it’s generally aimed toward building community around a brand. Also, since brand management is better handled internally, the company blog falls outside my jurisdiction.

The third alternative – and the one which I aim to propose – is to pull focus even further, and launch an industry blog. Think of it as a self-interested, online industry trade magazine focused on larger trends within the company’s value chain, end-markets, IP, government involvement and/or global competition.

If this sounds more ambitious than a vanity blog, that’s because it is. I never said this marketing model would be easy, just credible, legitimate and logistically viable. Plus, done correctly, it can reap benefits unattainable through conventional marketing collateral. Consider:

Credibility and authority: As Forrester Research reported last year, people intrinsically distrust company blogs. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that’s because people distrust companies. Expanding the scope of your blog to the market in which you compete puts legitimate distance on the company agenda.

Influence: The goal isn’t to abandon the company agenda, but rather frame it against a larger context: namely what’s best for the market in which you compete. By creating a clearinghouse for information and perspective on industry trends, your blog can attract media as well as prospects, and establish you as the go-to authority for answers. No need to be totally objective. You’re entitled to a point of view, as long as you educate readers in the process.

Lead-gen via education: Social media in general, and blogs in particular are about attraction, not promotion. If done correctly, an industry blog can first attract and then educate prospective leads about an unfamiliar or complex technology. This is particularly effective for businesses fielding early technologies, such as advanced batteries, nanomaterials, smart grid technologies, video-over-IP or even social media.

An open channel: As an active player in the industry on which you blog, you’re entitled to occasionally use that blog as an open channel to broadcast corporate announcements. Standard rules apply: If you flood the channel with news only a CEO could love, then expect the Chief to remain your only loyal reader.

Delegation: Lastly, this new model of the corporate blog legitimizes delegation. But don’t be cavalier in your selection. This isn’t an intern position or piecework for a freelancer. Ideally, you’ll find a corporate strategist or consultant who can become thoroughly familiar with your company’s collective expertise and capabilities, as well as the issues and challenges confronting the industry at large.

Candidates should also know how to build and enforce an editorial policy to imbue the blog with a consistently representative point of view. This last skill is not only essential when deciding what issues to cover, and how to cover them. It will also be critical if, when and how the blog must address negative comments.

Overall, we’re talking ghost-blogger candidates with conventional editorial skills, which are in plentiful supply given the state of industry trade magazines these days.

Tell me what you think about this proposed model. Did I miss any benefits, or drawbacks? Do its benefits warrant a place among corporate strategy? Is it even a new idea? If not, I’d love to see some links to representative blogs in the comments section.

New Feature: Friday Link Love

I’m still contemplating Part 2 of my series on legitimate ways to outsource content for corporate blogs. I’m probably over-thinking it. It’s a sticky issue, and… well, it’s a sticky issue, okay? I promise to work on it over the weekend.

For now, I’m launching a regular new feature on this blog, and it’s only slightly derivative. (Can I sell, or what? Yo…)

Every Friday, expect to find links to blogs or forums that inspired me to post a comment.

Photo credit: ArtemFinland

About a third to half of my “blogging” time goes to reading and commenting on some thirty blogs that I regularly scan. They run the gamut from marketing communications, social media, writing and lead generation, and they’re all excellent.

In fact, I’m constantly discovering valuable new bloggers to add to my Google Reader,  list every week. If you think I should be reading your blog, then add a link to your best or most recent post in the comments section. If you inspire me, maybe I’ll leave a comment on your blog – and not just the cursory “Hey, great post.”

I actually take time to compose my comments, and contribute something of value to the conversation. Commenting breeds reflection and, as a few of my past posts demonstrate, reflection on other blogs can generate interesting new threads to follow here.

The only downside is that none of the thoughtful stuff I participate in on other blogs appears here… until now.

Credit to Christine Hartter for her post about the importance – and difficulty – in keeping your blog and other social media channels current. This is the post that sparked the idea for Link Love.

John White took an interesting take on how to pitch social media to engineering companies. He gets extra points for patiently tolerating my insistent prodding, in the comments section.

Beth Harte has a knack for asking difficult questions, and sparking easy conversation on her blog The Harte of Marketing. This week her post entitled “How truly serious are you about being social?” raises that question in a hypothetical world where Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin (gasp) disappeared overnight. (Sounds like a Jerry Bruckheimer scenario to me.)

Beth also asked this week how to promote yourself to social media contacts without putting anyone off. That question was too big for me to tackle quickly. But it’s worth reading Beth’s post anyway.

Tom Martin got all meta-cognitive in a couple of posts this week, including the one I commented on: “What do you want from me?”

Corey Freeman is a 17-year-old entrepreneur and female freelance content writer and designer. More notably, girl can write. She asked this week how to decide if freelance writing is for you, and I answered.

No Respect: The Freelance Writer and Social Media

The late, great Rodney Dangerfield

This is the first of a two-part post about the future of freelance copywriting in social media and relationship marketing. Part one, below, sets the stage by discussing how social media has introduced a completely new paradigm for content development. Part two will discuss what freelance copywriters can do to remain relevant in this emerging world.

I backed myself into this blog-off competition a while back. I’ll spare you the details. Suffice to say that the host promised me and my competitors would deliver two weeks of “social media and marketing thought leadership.”

Normally, such hyperbole would have made me nervous. I could have expressed everything I knew about social media marketing, at the time, in 140 characters or less. I was so new to the game, I kept confusing Robert Scoble and Philip Seymour Hoffman. And there I was, preparing to post my first blog entries ever in public competition with strategic marketing professionals, SEO wizards and veteran bloggers.

Robert Scoble and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Regardless of my competitors’ superior knowledge, however, I felt they were at least competing on my turf: Content. I had the writing chops, I felt, and wasn’t that really what drove blog traffic?

So, yeah, I lost big time. Didn’t even place in the top half of the field.

Fortunately, I’d been competing to learn, not win. And I did learn, although everything I know about social media marketing still fits into 140 characters or less. Here it is:

Social media marketing qualifies as neither social nor marketing without three elements: Context, Content and Conversation.

As someone who butters his bread by generating business copy, I’d love to believe that Content is truly king. I recognize that businesses and brands that hope to make an impact must pay liege to the quality of their content. Strong copy equates with a strong presence in the market, and powerful influence.

But like the kings of old, Content is one step removed from the top of the divine hierarchy. Extending the feudal analogy a step, if Content is king, then Context is God.

Context determines Content. Anybody who graduated high school has at least an elemental grasp of this. It isn’t difficult stuff in principle (in practice, it’s another matter). Context simply comprises your

• Intended audience (e.g. customers, investors, employees, etc.)
• Intended goal (e.g. to educate or persuade) and its
• Intended format (e.g. brochure, web copy, annual report, etc.)

Businesses who underthink context invariably miss their target audience (or worse), and instead generate content that only a C-level suit could possibly love. (I’m looking at you Dan Hesse)

The second kingdom
But social media has introduced a sort of second, coexistant kingdom, Where traditional static marketing collateral depends on Content, social media marketing thrives on Conversation. I’m talking specifically about executive blogging and microblogging (i.e. Twitter).

Social Media: The Second Kingdom

Many businesses don’t see the benefits of conversing about their brand with customers, and I’m not going to go into that here. But I’d like to point out three reasons why this defining element of social media marketing might intimidate C-level executives and their PR handlers:

• Logistical concerns: Who has time to engage customers on a regular basis when there’s a corporate ship to steer?
• Strategic concerns: Relationship marketing, by definition, means loosening that iron grip on the corporate message, which contradicts the instincts of the corner office and PR pros alike.
• Personality concerns: Let’s face it, some qualities that make for a good corporate officer – like cut-throat aggression, single-minded ambition and intolerance for whiners – will not translate smoothly in active public discourse.

Let’s put those bullets in simpler terms. Executives are reluctant to engage in social media because it requires their time, creativity and commitment. In other words, social media asks them to provide something that they normally pay other people to do… people like freelance writers.

The value of a freelance writer isn’t in providing a skill that everyone learned in high school. Writing is simply a feature. The benefits are time (e.g. increased productivity), creativity and commitment (e.g. reliability to standards and deadlines).

So, you would think copywriters would be in increasing demand as social media marketing expands its role. And they are. New opportunities from corporate blogs to ghost-tweeters have slowly begun to emerge.

Therein lies the problem. The whole value of corporate blogging revolves around the first principle of relationship marketing: direct communication with the top dog. Implicit in this is the notion that the corporate blog reflects the corporate executive’s own thoughts, in his/her own words. The same applies to their responses in the comment section, only more so.

Hiring someone to handle the corporate blog raises issues of authenticity, as Beth Harte recently pointed out on her excellent blog, The Harte of Marketing.

Her post specifically addressed the lack of authenticity in the context of public relations. But this paragraph jumped out at me:

I don’t know about you, but these days when I read an article, a tweet, or a blog post I want to know that the person’s name on the article is the person who actually wrote it…  And if I find out that Jane Doe at an agency really wrote it, well all credibility is gone in an instant.

That resonated with me because ghostwriting is a service that’s buttered a lot of bread indeed for me. My first two years as a freelance business writer were spent ghostwriting trade articles and white papers for the companies I once covered as a journalist.

I don’t agree with Ms. Harte’s assertion that those contributions made my clients inauthentic. Mostly, I contributed my time and my personal knowledge of what would appeal to editors. I couldn’t possibly affect the Context of these articles, and in terms of Content, I limited my role to converting highly technical and disorganized material into polished syntax.

Blogging is a different medium, however, and authenticity is valued at a higher premium. Content isn’t an end here, it’s a beginning. It sparks conversation. Conversation sparks relationships. Relationships spark customers, then advocates – or so the thinking goes.

If the first link of the chain flows from a hired mouthpiece, then what value do the subsequent relationships lose?

I have some ideas of my own, and will address them in a future post. But I invite you to respond to that question, and whether there’s a work-around for executives and the people who make them look good on paper.