Or are they? Who is the ‘me’ in ‘my own’? I could be Dave, the office burglar and still say this post is ‘my own’, and in doing so break no laws, and engage in no deception. You read this and assume that is it written by ‘me’. There’s a photo on the side of the blog, and a name on it too. It seems fair to assume that is me that wrote it. Surely if it was written by someone else, I, they or both of us would be deceiving you? What about if it has been edited and proofread by someone else in the office? Let’s step back a bit for a moment.

So, is ghost blogging ethical? It really depends on your definition of ghost blogging, and what it entails. I’m going to give you my answer before I give you a definition. To my mind, ghost blogging is rarely ethical, or at least it is rarely executed ethically. That’s partly a matter of my career path, in that ghost blogging, in the sense that many people mean it, is essentially allowing content written by someone else to be taken and passed off as your own original work. In the academic world that is plagiarism; a pretty fast way to end your academic career.

Now, you might argue that the original author has willingly given over their work – although more often that not a junior wage-slave was cajoled into producing the piece – and that that fact makes it alright. However, be it a staff member writing for a CEO or a PR company supplying copy to a professional blogger, to my mind it is still at the very least an act of deception. It is passing off a piece of writing as something that it is, in fact, not.

There is another definition of ghost blogging that is less commonly used, but that I am more comfortable with. The simple act of writing for somebody. Ghost writing has a long history. Often, celebrities or their agents will engage a ghost writer to produce their autobiography. It is slightly different than the most common form of ghost blogging, because increasingly often the ghost writer is acknowledged, and it is increasingly the case that people would assume a ghost writer has been engaged. Not to cast aspersions on Katie Price’s literary skills, but if you are reading her biography, you would probably assume that she had engaged the services of a ghost writer. Actually, Katie Price’s books are ghost written, by Rebecca Farnworth. And here is a distinction in the shades of grey in Ghost writing: Katie Price chooses the plots to her books. And the ghost is a shadowy entity; Not fully visible, but known to be present. That’s very different from the kind of ghost who’s existence is denied.

Here is the biggest danger with ghost blogging, especially for CEOs and senior figures: It’s the danger that a customer, business partner or other industry figure reads their blog that week. The believe, as they have been lead to, that the post represents the thoughts and views of the senior figure. Then they run into them in “real-life”. What happens as they strike up a conversation about the post that they read and enjoyed? The post that wasn’t written by the CEO, which doesn’t represent the CEO’s views. Firstly is the potential for the CEO to look like an idiot who forgets what he does from one minute to the next, and secondly it makes the customer look like an idiot for believing it was written by the CEO. Thirdly, it destroys trust between the two of them; Trust being the very thing blogging is meant to help with. That, for me, is the biggest no-no.

The roots of blogging were about being transparent, building trust, and ghost blogging goes against that. To be clear, I don’t think that is wrong for a busy CEO to have someone else write their post for them, particularly in the incidents where it is essentially based on an interview or conversation with them, or that they have at least defined the key points and main narrative. The idea of passing off writing that has never been past the eyes of the CEO as having come through the lips of the CEO is a dangerous thing to do. In the case of a speech writing, while the words might not have been the CEO’s, they have been spoken by them. The danger with ghost blogging is that the middle-man who is cut out is the person who should have been the messenger.

If a blog post is described as ‘written for’, rather than ‘written by’ the claimed author, then we are the right side of the line. If it claims to be ‘written by’ someone who did not originate its content, then a deception with no ethical grounds has been carried out. It is also a deception that leaves the perpetrators with nowhere to go. If there is something in that post that is factually inaccurate or professionally naive, then the CEO must either accept the error as if it was his own incompetence, or admit to the error.

Let me leave you with some words from an article in The Independent earlier this year:

In the film, adapted by Polanski with Robert Harris from his 2007 novel of the same name, McGregor’s professional author is enlisted by former Prime Minister Adam Lang, played with a Blairish glint by Pierce Brosnan, to write his long-overdue memoirs. ”So, how do we go about this?” Lang asks casually, drink in hand, in an early scene. “I interview you and turn your answers into prose,” comes the sober reply. And there, in a nutshell, is the art of ghostwriting.

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Why Blog?

The reasons for a personal and for a business blog are not all the dissimilar. A long ago I stated my reasons for blogging, and those haven’t really changed:

• Blogging enables me to clarify my thoughts, examining them and reflecting on them.
• Blogging enables me to think about my thinking - meta-cognition.
• Blogging forces me to gather information to support or dismiss my opinions.
• Blogging is a place to plan and reflect – it is much more than what ends up in the post.

Blogging really is just a form of writing, and by writing you will find your voice. And you get used to your voice – your unique way of communicating. Blogging creates a level of self-awareness that is otherwise hard to obtain, and it is a great form of self-actualization.

Don’t take my word for it. This the list of reasons that marketing guru Seth Godin gives for blogging:

• Blogging is free.
• It doesn’t matter if anyone reads it. What matters is the humility that comes from writing it.
• … and the meta cognition of thinking about what you are going to say.
• If you are good at it, some people will read it.
• If you are not good at it, stick with it you will get good at it.
• It forces you to become part of the conversation…
• …and that posture change changes an enormous amount.

Yes you say, but Seth is one of those marketing guys. He would say that wouldn’t he. How about Tom Peters then? Tom is well know as one of the leading experts in business management, he says:

“No single thing in the last 15 years, professionally, has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life. It has changed my perspective. It has changed my intellectual outlook. It has change my emotional outlook. Parathesises: and it is the best damn marketing tool, by an order of magnitude, I’ve ever had.” Tom Peters

You can see Seth Godin and Tom Peters on that video here. If you haven’t started a blog already, start by commenting on the blogs that you read. Did you know that you are here with thousands of other visitors? You have a unique perspective, and know things that myself and others may never know, unless you tell us.

You can take the step that moves you from the audience and onto the stage just by leaving a comment. Step into the blogosphere, it really is the only way to find out what it is all about.

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Twitter lives somewhere between the closed world of Instant Messaging and the open world of blogs. It is a very curious beast. If you want the ten second description, think of it like this: A version of instant messaging where the messages you type go to all of your buddies, and where your buddies can sign in and see all the messages from all of the people they are ‘following’. However using it like an instant messaging client will drive people barking mad. Don’t do that. Twitter is not an IM client, and you miss its power by using it that way.

Messages, or ‘Tweets’ as they are called, are public by default, for example Google will find you. Think about that for a second. Tweets are plain text only, but you can post URLs. Because of the 140 character limit for tweets you might need to make use of a URL shortening service like tinyurl.com to squish them down. For (much) more detail see Caroline’s big juicy twitter guide. There is also some interesting discussion on Twitter use at Marketers Studio, where people have batted some examples around. For fun, watch the world twittering on twittervision: zoom right out and watch for a minute or two. It is quite a strange sensation to watch people answering the Twitter question: “What are you doing?” around the globe. News services are now posting alerts to twitter also, like the BBC, CNET and CNN World.

Some marketing people are getting quite excited about Twitter. I’m a marketing person, but that isn’t why I am excited. I’m curious from a productivity and communication perspective. It could be a gold mine, or at least a silver mine. I’ve been talking with Twitter users for quite a while and last week had the chance to see it in action in a large group context at Web2.0Expo and Interop. I was very impressed – it connects people in a unique way and can save time with all sorts of tricky problems. Like most tools, it can increase productivity or it can ruin it. I remember the early days of email – good. I know today’s email – bad. Twitter can only be understood by using it, so why don’t you follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/redcatco? If you are not already a Twitter user you can sign up – it is very quick and straight forward. I’ll write up what I learn the week before Christmas, that’s about four weeks away.

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Using a blog is a novel idea, but there are various other tools that can be used to keep a journal:

• A text file or document (on the desktop)
• A personal wiki (either web or PC based)
• A paper journal (you know, those things made from dead trees, you see them in old photos)

The challenge with a traditional on-line blog is that it is not private, which significantly limits (consciously or unconsciously) what you write in it. It is possible to make a blog private – wordpress.com certainly has this feature.

The big flat text-file

You could use a file on computer, in a text editor or word-processor of your choice. If you do, you might want to think about password protecting it – most word processors and operating systems provide a means to do this. Given the rate of PC and laptop thefts, it is probably well worth it if it contains sensitive information.

Personal Wikis

I have found using a personal wiki to be the most effective journal for me. Hosted wikis make me a little nervous from a security perspective, for something as sensitive as a personal diary – either the wiki or its server could be hacked, or someone could sniff the web traffic, unless the wiki uses SSL or some form of network-level encryption. The good news is that you can run a wiki locally on your own machine, right in your browser, without having to install any server software.

I’ve settled on TiddlyWiki. I did use Bladewiki for a while, which is also excellent, especially if you are using Windows Mobile / pocket PC, but I needed something that worked on the Mac and the PC and that could be transported around on a memory stick. TiddlyWiki’s functionality has moved on in leaps and bound since I started using it and it is improving all the time.

The big advantage of a personal Wiki is that your entries can be tagged and linked to other information in the wiki. Of course a blog provides many of theses capabilities as well – I’m on WordPress 2.3 here now so WOWNDADI has tags too. If you are a blogging addict, Seth’s suggestion might be a great way to start keeping a personal diary to track your progress and record your greatest (private) thoughts. You’ll have a searchable archive of your inner-world. Just make sure it is secure.

The paper journal

It has to be said that there is something very organic about having a paper journal, although I never figured out how to back it up effectivitly or make it fully searchable. Recently I was in a print shop, having some urgent brochures printed up, when an older lady came in and dumped her filofax onto the desk. It looked like she had be using since the 80′s, it had hundreds of pages. She asked them to photocopy the lot for her! I do hope it was hers. For what she paid to have it copied, I could have bought a good PDA.

My trusty MacBook always seems to be with me these days, which makes it an ideal diary and journal fo me – especially if a remember to back it up… You have backed up recently, haven’t you???

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There are some familiar names on there. The new sense of community that blogging brings is very refreshing. It isn’t always perfect, but it is great to see good ideas being developed and relationships built. This blog is now read in over two dozen countries, from the USA, through the UK to Australia, the Seychelles, Turkey, Sweden, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Singapore and even on Christmas Island. Welcome to the global community! Browse the archives, rate or comment on some posts and see what happens.

(I would post the list here, but it broke my WordPress install, so check out the lastest version here).

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Facebook’s move to make people’s profiles searchable by Google has got people thinking about their not-so-private lives again. The web is making the world of information very leaky. A wall posting on facebook goes from one person to another, ends up in an email, arrives in an inbox and goes via a blog to the public web. The world knows what you did last night.

Conversations like The Great Facebook Debate will be very interesting (thanks to Chinwag for pointing it out!). Regardless of the outcome, we need to be careful what we say, and what we type. Is it OK? In this decade and beyond, we will have to be our very own PR managers. The web really is changing the way we communicate, but in some very unexpected ways.

Related post: LinkedIn Opens the World and Closes a Window

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