>>Do you think that Bill Gates or Oprah is always on the other end of your social media conversations?

Altaf Shaikh — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:39:26 +0000

My good friend Dave Wieneke recently asked me to partake in a “discussion” on the ethics of ghostwriting in social media on his blog. The idea was to get a few different opinions from within the blogging and social media space, and to see where people’s opinions lay on this recently hot topic. Now, without giving anything away, the first thing that seems apparent about this topic is that people are generally either very “pro” social media ghostwriting or very “anti”.

Here’s what I had to say on the subject…

“As an organization, when invited to work with a client, although we may not initially feel one way or anothertowards, let’s say, the medical device industry for example—we do feel strongly about the real-life people, friends, and partners that we support with our efforts. So, when a client asks us to engage their audience because they don’t have the expertise, the resources, or “bandwidth” to execute their social media strategy, we lend a hand.

In my mind, this new “digital ghostwriting push” is actually nothing new: popular brands have been doing it for years—via customer service “response” letters, pre-recorded phone calls, emails and direct mail pieces. This is just the latest version of busy people outsourcing their surplus work to others who they have trained and who they trust.”

Don't-Go-It-Alone eMarketing Blog » Ghostwriting Ethics

>>Do you think that Bill Gates or Oprah is always on the other end of your social media conversations?