Hiring Ghostwriters for Social Media

By Kyle McCabe | September 22, 2011

Hiring a ghostwriter can be an attractive approach to social media, if you’re a business owner or marketer with little time on your hands to devote to keeping up with social updates on multiple platforms.

There can be some pitfalls to this approach, however – not the least of which is the perceived in-authenticity of the person who has someone else speak for them.

In the case of Mark Davidson, it would appear this morning that he’s been utilizing several ghost writers for his Twitter account, and one of them was just fired. The problem is this person still has access to Davidson’s account, with amusing results. For example:

And all the funny stuff that @markdavidson wrote, that was all me. The other 2 ghostwriters are really boring. Good luck, bro…

This situation taken on first look, the feeling I get (besides the ache in my gut from laughing) is that Davidson has been a little deceptive – or is it apathetic? While I understand the reason Ghostwriters might be used, knowing it still shifts my perspective to one of caution and distrust regarding this particular person. I have to wonder if this is true for all his followers.

Now I’ll admit, this could be a stunt. It could be fake. Maybe his account was hacked and someone is lying. Maybe he’s just having fun (in that case, well played, Mark). There’s no way to know at this point, but the lesson is clear: be careful when hiring ghostwriters – it could cause more problems than it solves.

What do you think?

 

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