Comments on: Ghostwriting for Social Media

By: Twitter Apps for Public Relations Professionals « Vanguard Communications InSites | Blogging for Social Change

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:25:41 +0000

[...] ConnectTweet allows groups or organizations to combine the voices of its employees into a central Twitter account. With ConnectTweet, multiple people can contribute to the organization’s Twitter account by adding a hashtag to their company-related tweets coming from their personal account. ConnectTweet grabs the tweets containing the relevant hashtag and posts them to the organization’s Twitter page along with the individual’s Twitter handle. This is a good way to avoid having a ghostwriter for your organization’s Twitter account (see my previous post: Ghostwriting for Social Media). [...]

By: Rachael Siefert

Rachael Siefert — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:21:55 +0000

I agree Jenn, while it is naive to think that every individual we follow is personally updating their account we want to believe that we are getting an inside look at that individual’s thoughts and opinions each time we log on to Twitter.

I think when we hear or read more “traditional” methods of communication (press releases, public statements, speeches, etc) we expect that a team of communication professionals helped to craft the message. Maybe it was not always that way, but it is now an accepted and expected practice. Perhaps one day we will expect the same thing with Twitter, but for now it seems that some of us are holding out hope that the individuals we follow are taking the time to update their Twitter account personally.

By: Jenn

Jenn — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:08:53 +0000

Chris – that is a great question? Do our followers know who is behind the twitter machine? I would say about 80% of them do, as it is a small industry and we are all aware of each other and our roles within our presses. Since I am twittering for an organization instead of as a person I would say the other 20% do not, and most likely do not care who they are getting the info from as long as it is interesting an accurate. As it is a collaborative effort, we all contribute to content, but I am the only physical updater, if I were to go on leave, there would be a tweet, somewhere along the lines of… “Today your normal tweeter, Jenn will be replaced with…”, on my personal account it is only ever me, my followers are aware and it is almost never updated due to time constraints.

Back to the original discussion, I agree with the original post that it is naive to think that every personal account on twitter is updated individually, but I do find it unethical when it is not the person actually tweeting on a personal account. It is common knowledge that a press release is a crafted communications tool, however individual accounts on twitter, thus far are not commonly thought of as such.

We think that when we follow Ashton Kutcher, we are actually getting a glimpse into his own individual thoughts and message, if we were to find out that “Woke up feeling like some one hit me over the head with an Oscar. What’s Mike Tysons tiger doing here?” was actually written buy a staffer, it would damage not only Ashton’s credibility but Twitter’s as well.

How important is Twitter as a PR tool? are we all just tweeting to ourselves or does it truly drive a message to a broader audience? To me at times it seems a bit incestuous, but is that the case in every industry that is using it?

By: Chris Connelly

Chris Connelly — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:43:05 +0000

Thanks for stopping by, Jenn! I’m curious – do your organization’s followers know that you’re the active voice behind the Twitter feed? If so, how do they know?

I agree that the tone of a message – especially one delivered in 140 characters – can change depending on who is writing it. That’s where the ethical question comes into focus. Personally, I don’t know that this is an ethical dilemma that hasn’t already been addressed for different mediums.

As an example, let’s look at this question in a different light. It is an accepted, common communications practice to craft messages or statements on behalf of a client, and have that client sign off on them. If this article were discussing a PR professional writing a statement on behalf of an executive, to be attributed to that executive as a direct quotation in a press release, would there be an ethical question? I would say no – as long as the executive signs off on the statement, there doesn’t seem to be much debate as to whether it is ethical that somebody else wrote it. Communications professionals regularly craft speeches and public statements on behalf of executives or organizational leadership, which are then delivered to the public as the executive’s own thoughts or perspectives. Again, we accept this as an ethical practice.

Is Twitter different? If it is, what makes it so?

By: Jenn Burgess

Jenn Burgess — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:59:34 +0000

As the only ” twitter’er’ ” for an entire press, this post was incredibly interesting to me, even though our followers are not following me personally, they are following an entire organization, I still feel the need to let followers know if there is a new person tweeting the account say, at a conference that I am not attending, as the whole tone of a message can change with the person entering in the information.