Why is it that ghost-writing of a book is deemed acceptable but ghost-blogging or ghost-twittering isn’t?

Maybe it’s to do with the fact that many people might accept that some level of skill is required to actually write a book, whereas composing a 150 word blog post or 140 character tweet can be done ‘off the cuff’, so to speak.

Whether this is true or not, many of us prefer not to be deliberately deceived. Being ‘time-poor’ is no excuse.

Far better to be up-front and open about who exactly is tweeting or blogging under a specific identity than try and hide behind ghost-bloggers or tweeters.

Head of marketing at the University of Otago, Associate Professor Ken Deans, noted in a recent New Zealand Herald article that he believed ghost-tweeting was unethical.

“It’s about trust and mistrust. If someone else is writing for the CEO, that’s unacceptable.”

One Tweeter who’s clear about their identity, and who’s tweeting on their behalf, is New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (johnkeypm). Tweets placed by staff are prefaced by ‘via staff:’

Does this make the information any less readable? No. It simply means the reader knows who’s placed it and ensures Key is not caught out by curly questions that might arise as a result.

So if you’re tempted to blog or tweet using a ghost-writer, be mindful that not being open and honest in your communications could back-fire big time, and instead of building trust and creating valuable conversations you could find yourself distrusted and branded a fake.