A Horrifying Tale of Social Media Ghosts
All at once, I am flattered + horrified.
Flattered, because a public figure asked me to manage her online reputation.
Horrified, because she wanted me to “ghost write” her blog content, accept social media invitations, and interact with her fan base.
Without (much of) her involvement.
The horror!
I have nothing against ghost writers. After all, I write speeches and design presentations for others. It’s a collaborative process. Framing, shaping, editing, and polishing always goes on behind the scenes.
Collaboration is a huge part of ghosting. Without collaboration, it’s not really ghosting. It’s sort of like fiction. But not the good kind of fiction that leads you to deeper universal truths. No, social media fiction of this nature is completely made up junk — with no social value.
photo credit: Sérgio Savaman Savarese
I asked my would-be client about her motivation for getting involved with social media. What are her goals? If the goal is to grow or deepen her fan base, perhaps reaching out to fans through various social media plays can help. Or if the goal is self-expression — maybe social media involvement can provide a vehicle and an audience for creative ideas.
Or maybe not.
But neither of these goals is likely to be achieved through “faking” relationships and stories.
So I made my “no ghost posties” position clear in my pitch. Crystal clear. Transparent, as the social media types say! But my would-be client pushed back: if I wouldn’t do it, she would have to find someone who would.
My arguments about the value of authenticity and truthfulness seemed to fail. Perhaps one argument hit a nerve — the likelihood that she would eventually get caught. Imagine it: a publicist pretending to be a client might ghost-post about how groovy her new nail polish looks. But at the exact same moment, the client is actually getting a traffic citation. Something as simple and inevitable as a simultaneous Twitter/Arrest would definitely brand a public figure as a fake and disgrace.
Getting arrested? No big deal.
Getting outed as a liar on YouTube, FaceBook, or Twitter? That’s hard to live down!
So when it comes to social media, what’s an appropriate role for the publicist? I asked pals on Twitter to share their insights. Here’s their Twittery response:
Perhaps Twitter pal Charity Hisle said it most succinctly: “Set-up, Monitoring, Advice.”
That’s it. In essence, those are the only 3 appropriate social media publicist roles.
- Set up. This can include developing a social media strategy and response framework, as well as navigating the client through technical set-up and initial content creation (profile pictures, resumes, background, schedules, etc. “Publishing Data” as Dennis Stevenson put it. But definitely no character or voice pieces… )
- Monitoring. Listening and responding to online buzz is a huge part of social media publicity. The publicist should stay on top of breaking stories that can impact the reputation of the public figure. That’s where than can offer…
- Advice. A great publicist will put a client’s reputation first and recommend effective practices for navigating the sometimes tricky tributaries of social media channels. Embracing and engaging an online fan base requires authenticity: anything less is likely to be a disaster.
Where do you stand on the ghost-post? How many times have you interacted with a public figure online and thought, “I wonder if I really connected with person — or just their army of advisors?” What’s your trust factor when it comes to public figures and social media? Who have you connected with that seems authentic — and who falls into the “fakin’ it” column?
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Comments
I applaud your integrity regarding this social media gray area.
I think after all the years in and around the PR biz, I’m a bit jaded because I’ve seen so much spin that is purely a fabrication of the PR pro and has little to do with the client. Especially in the political arena. I’ve gotten to where I’m skeptical of every word a candidate utters and I wonder who put it there…especially when the candidate appears to have “buzzword diarrhea of the mouth.” You betcha…I find the “vetting” process “fundamentally” flawed even when it pertains to “mavericks.”
So it stands to reason that I tend to view celebrities appearing on social media sites with a jaundiced eye. Especially if the patter appears too polished. I follow Rick Sanchez from CNN on Twitter and I’m actually comforted by his sketchy spelling and borderline grammar. (though the journalist within shudders) It’s a silly “marker” I know, but I tend to pay more heed because I have the sense of a real person behind the tweets and Facebook wall posts.
In my 25 years as a writer, I’ve always been cautious of putting words into someone else’s mouth. And to me, this is exactly what this potential client is asking you to do without much care about what those words are except that it creates the right public persona.
Good post, tough issue as to where to draw the line. In addition to your first three points we will also draft responses to conversations we think are important.
I send the link to the original comment, and my response. We won’t post till we get a thumbs up or down from the client.
Interesting note, as we have gotten to know the client, we write better responses, but they have become more involved in the process, modifying the responses, and sometimes following the links themselves and getting engaged in follow up discussions.
In this instance I consider myself an ice breaker
I’ve always assumed that most celebs had staff to do their social media interaction. Was I wrong?
Interestingly, I exclude Stephen Fry @stephenfry from that, largely because his twitter persona matches his blog/public persona so closely.
Good post and way to stick to your guns!
Managing identity is a tricky business. Main thing is to tell the truth.
ps I like the way Rick Sanchez handles identity on Twitter. If his producer posts something, he put an annotation on the tweet saying so.