Comments on: POLL & Discussion: Is it wrong for others to write your company blog?

By: Robert Pickstone

Robert Pickstone — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:05:35 +0000

Thanks Maria. That is a really good point. Adding visuals and audios is a great way to draw interest to a blog and keep readers hooked once they are there. Many bloggers don't seem 'brave' enough to do this (me included!). A 1 min video from the Chief Exec of a company would be very interesting to customers, and would provide an insight and personality that blog-writers arguably can't do.

By: Maria Gandara

Maria Gandara — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:28:12 +0000

If you're bad at writing then do try a video blog or a podcast. There are millions of blogs around so if you want to stand out, your blog – in whatever form – must be extremely interesting and provide real insight into the company. I don't think that a “blog-writing” company can do it.

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By: Andrew Knowles

Andrew Knowles — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:40:14 +0000

If I were able to make accurate predictions I'd be in a different business, Robert! But you ask a good question.
I believe that as the economy picks up the number of people trying to earn from writing will drop as they get back into 'real' jobs. This should mean that the number of professional writers will fall, with an increase in quality.
Whether companies will choose to outsource their blog writing remains to be seen. But I have come across some business blogs that are merely a stream of product reviews and news updates relevant to their sector; this is very easy to outsource because it requires much less knowledge of the business running the blog.

By: Andrew Knowles

Andrew Knowles — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:40:14 +0000

By: Robert Pickstone

Robert Pickstone — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:30:14 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Andrew. You mention that writers need to have a strong bias towards journalism and research. I think the demand for writers may increase over the next couple of years as more and more companies understand the real benefits of maintaining a blog. Do you think this demand will create many more writers with lower levels of skill, making a good writer harder to find? Or do you think the general standard of writing will improve as more and more companies look to blog.

By: Andrew Knowles

Andrew Knowles — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:37:11 +0000

I don't see a problem with penning a business blog on behalf of someone else. But as a freelance copywriter I would say that, wouldn't I?

I'd expect a business of reasonable size, with its own marketing team, to keep it inhouse. But small outfits who can't afford dedicated marketers would be justified in paying someone to blog for them, in the same way they might pay an outside agency to design and manage their website - another key marketing channel.

The blogger would need to understand the specific business and the commercial environment in general. They'd spend time listening to what people inside the business say and they'd understand the industry sector that it operates in.

Which means the blogger can't simply be copywriter. They need to know what it's like to run a business and they need to have strong bias towards towards journalism and research.

So no, it's not wrong to pay someone else to write your company blog. But it's probably very easy to get something that's bland, templated and could be extremely similar to that of other clients of the copywriter.

It's all down to the business to find the right blogger. But I'm a freelance copywriter, so I would say that, wouldn't I?

By: PatrickatJPR

PatrickatJPR — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:44:40 +0000

I agree about pretending to be the CEO (or anyone else) being akin to playing with fire and the smoke spreading – I also agree that it's a corny line!

I think we need to be aware that for many brands getting into social media for the first time there can appear to be many 'rules' and they don't understand why they are there. My view, as I said before, is that brands should do what works for them. And if it works for them, but breaks the 'rules' we should embrace and learn from that and maybe revise the rules.

I found the post from a tweet by @banksy6 – and had been meaning to comment for a couple of days.

By: Robert Pickstone

Robert Pickstone — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:19:27 +0000

Hi Patrick,

No worries about joining the discussion late. It's great to have your input.

Pretending to be a CEO or any other person in an organisation's blog is playing with fire. The smoke would spread across the social media world pretty quickly if the truth was discovered (that sounded so corny!). Forgetting the risk, it would be wrong to do this anyway.

Using social media to achieve outcomes should be at the forefront on all companies engaging online. If it isn't then it should be - they need to know why they are doing it. Their method of acheiving these goals is completely down to them and if they choose to use someone elses help then that's their call. Like you said though, transparency is very important. No audience likes to be kept in the dark. Saying that, if the audience doesn't know the company are not writing the blog, and targets are being hit, then a company would probably argue it made the right decision. Bottom line is bottom line.

Every comment that comes through gives me more to think about, so thank you! Out of interest though, how did you come across this blog post? Was it on Twitter? Just curious.

Rob

By: Robert Pickstone

Robert Pickstone — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:01:30 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Sara. I agree that if a company does take the route of using outide help then the discussions need to be very thorough and the company needs to have total control over the creation of the blog idea. I wonder how long this process typically lasts?