Prompt's TechBlog

No, don't go away, I'm not talking about Santo Politi again (or at least I wasn't, until I just mentioned him). And this will be the only mention of Dan Aykroyd, Slimer or Bill Murray you'll find (despite the lame pun used for today's title).

No, today's post is about ghost-written blogs. To be more specific, a service called Bring the Blog (yep, it is American). For $399 a year Bring the Blog will write a blog entry every business day for its clients. If that sounds like an awful lot of blog entries to produce, don't worry; their writers aren't in too much danger of developing RSI - the entries are industry-specific rather than tailored to individual clients.

Described as above, it probably sounds more like a glorified RSS news feed. And that might not be too far from the truth. Except that it's presented as a blog, and for a more personal touch clients can add their own blog posts.

Now, why, you might ask don't these clients just write all their own blog posts then? Well, according to Bring the Blog, it's because blogging can be time-consuming and "blogging software has become very technical" (as far as I've noticed, it's been getting ever more user-friendly).

This review of their services further suggests that many might also be put off by the "steep learning curve". I suppose that's not unreasonable - there are plenty of reasons why someone might not want to or might not feel able to write a blog. Equally, there's no reason why a company wouldn't want to enjoy the commercial advantages a good blog can bring, e.g. search engine visibility, interactivity, a reputation as a knowledgeable authority in the field, a more human, approachable face to the company. But to what extent can Bring the Blog provide these?

Despite the odd prominent spelling mistake (see the header), I'll take it on trust that they can provide quality blogposts that their clients' customers might want to read. And that having a blog will give their sites greater search engine visibility. And even that despite greater search engine visibility their customers aren't going to accidentally stumble upon identical content elsewhere whilst doing a little idle googling.

However, it's just not really blogging, is it?

It's not interacting with their customers (commenting isn't available just yet). It's not making the company more accessible and immediate. It's not humanising or personalising. It's not former Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble, for instance. That is, unless the clients are writing their own posts as well; perhaps using the Bring the Blog content as newsy, informative filler, or abandoning it altogether. Which leads us back to why the clients have outsourced their blogging in the first place: either they don't want to blog, or they don't feel able to. In which case, they're just not going to blog, are they?

Still, let's say they do try to write the odd post - maybe they're using Bring the Blog as a way to learn blogging - next to all those professional posts they've supposedly already written (it is ghost blogging - posts will be in the client's name), their real posts are going to have to be of a similarly professional standard not to stick out like a... well, like a badly written blog post, really.

All that said, though, perhaps there's the kernel of an idea here. Is the outsourcing of a company's blog not a viable option?

Well, the blogosphere has certain expectations - deception, for instance, is not taken to kindly; nor is thinly-veiled commercialism. People reading blogs like to know what they're getting - generally some kind of person-to-person interaction. Ghost-writing doesn't necessarily preclude this. Why shouldn't ghost-written blogs declare themselves as such?

Indeed, why shouldn't they be tailored to and reflective of the client? And even done with a bit of style. All that would be needed is some hint that someone relevant has been involved - Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's blog might be a good example (clearly not written by him, but with his involvement). Even more than that, if a member of the company were prepared to respond to comments, I can't see why a meaningful dialogue with customers couldn't be established.

Doubtless some bloggers would still be sceptical, but perhaps there is room for a well thought out bespoke blogging service? Particularly in the consumer technology area, where engaging with customers is perhaps key to securing their loyalty. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'm just not sure that it'll be Bring the Blog providing it. Certainly not yet.

Labels: corporate blogging, web 2.0