Who ya gonna call? GHOST BUSTERS!

Lindsay Manfredi, a self-proclaimed social media rock star and ghost blogger, started a discussion on her blog defending her profession.

Ghost blogging, by its very nature, is writing something for someone who claims to have written the piece, when in fact they did not. Therefore, ghost blogging is misleading the public, if not outright lying to them. You can give this issue to a 5 year old and they can tell you, without question, that it's lying.

Let's play a game. Go to Google. Search "ghost blogging ethics." The only content you'll find that is PRO ghost blogging comes from those who make a living solely from it. Anyone with any credibility in the industry, or any professional organization that sets ethical standards for this kind of thing is totally against it. Just look here or here

Look, my argument is not that we (public relations professionals, writers, etc.) should refuse to help our clients write. Uh, hello. That's a huge part of my job -- part of my job that I LOVE. Of course I understand that Mr. Big Shot, CEO of Big Shot Inc., doesn't always have the time to write his own blogs. And perhaps he isn't even a very good writer, or doesn't "get" what a blog is or he's just lazy and would rather not add it to his to-do list even if he does have all the time in world. And perhaps he stumbled on Ms. Manfredi's Web site and decides that he'd like a rock star to write for him. That's all totally kosher with me. I applaud that. Afterall, Ms. Manfredi needs to eat (and perhaps splurge on some hot new outfit for her rock show). [To demonstrate that this is not a personal attack on Ms. Manfredi, I'd recommend checking out her band, We're Not Mexican. It's pretty good stuff.]

Where I take issue with the whole thing is when Mr. Big Shot and Ms. Manfredi swear each other to secrecy, saying they'll never reveal that SHE is actually doing the writing, letting the public believe that everything she writes is falling straight out of Mr. Big Shot's mouth. Ms. Manfredi, for all intents and purposes, doesn't even exist.

That, my friends, is not okay. It doesn't adhere to ANY of the ethical codes or bylaws of ANY of our industry's organizations. It's also LYING. If you do not disclose that you contributed to a blog, you are actively and willingly deceiving the public. There just isn't any way around that. And if Joe Public finds out that he's been lied to? Well, welcome to The Land of Crisis Communications. The fall out from that could potentially be enormous for the company and your own professional reputation. Why would you want to risk that kind of backlash? This total lack of judgement shows just how green these ghostbloggers are to PR.

As Jason Falls, social media/public relations specialist says, "Transparency is key in social media. Ghost writers are the opposite. The biggest problem is getting found out. You run the risk of being disingenuous. It intimates that you have something to hide.”

All you have to do is DISCLOSE somehow, somewhere that you, the "ghost blogger," did the writing. You could say, "as told to ____," "contributions by ____," "with additional editorial support from ___," "co-written by ______." Whatever. I don't care how you decide to word it. Just do it.

If you don't, you're a liar liar pants on fire. And that tells me: 1) You don't care about professional ethics and standards, 2) The public's opinion doesn't matter to you, 3) You'll conveniently alter your values and morals for a quick buck, 4) You're okay with taking advantage of clients who may not be aware of industry ethical standards, 5) You're totally out of touch with your peers and 6) You're totally out of touch with the whole entire point of social media (authenticity).

Is that what you really want to communicate to me, your professional peers, future clients and public in a world that is increasingly placing an emphasis on transparency and honesty?

Again, my issue here is not with our industry writing for clients or on behalf of clients. I support this. I do it. I got my degree in it. I make my living from it. Just be honest about who wrote what. I don't care if you write every blog post for every client you have from now until eternity. Maybe your writing is actually 400% better than anything your clients could come up with. Congrats! But please -- just tell us you wrote it.

Plus, by being a "ghost blogger," you're cheating yourself out of future business. If I see a brilliant piece of writing that I'm told is written by Mr. Big Shot but is actually written by Lindsay, how would I ever be able to give her props for her skill or recommend her if I have no idea she did the writing? You're hiding yourself from new clients.

Look, everyone messes up from time to time. I'm not going to become the Ethics Nazi and call everyone out on every little oversight or omission. We're all learning together here, and no one is perfect, except for myself. (TOTALLY KIDDING! Just seeing if you were still paying attention.) But when your entire career and business model centers around deceiving the public... well, that's not okay. It gives our industry a bad name. I can't tell you how many cocktail parties I go to where someone asks what I do, and I say I'm a PR account exec, and I get some form of the "Oooh, so you spin to the public?"

Ghostbloggers -- please don't keep giving fuel to this argument.

P.S. Don't leave a comment saying, "Elizabeth, you're so naive! Don't you know how many people use ghostbloggers? Don't you realize Obama doesn't write his own speeches, that the Ford CEO doesn't make his own commercials, that Santa isn't real and that it was really your mother putting money under your pillow when you lost your tooth?" Look. Just because something is prevalent in society and/or has been happening since written word existed (literally) doesn't make it right.