I’ve written several posts on ethics and ghost blogging recently, so it’s hardly surprising that when I spotted a post suggesting one of the biggest names in social media has other people write under his name, I paid attention.
Bottom line: Guy Kawasaki, creator of Alltop and Truemors, has three other people writing through his Twitter account on his behalf.
Aran Hamilton chose to use the first post on his new blog to discuss how this changes his view of Guy (disclosure: Aran is a client, but we are not involved with his personal blog). Like Aran, although I’ve never met Guy I have a lot of respect for him and what he’s accomplished, which was initially shaken somewhat by this news.
Here’s the situation, in Guy’s own words (from the iampaddy blog):
“…there are two people who tweet on my behalf. One, @amoxcalli, is a grandmother in LA who has an exquisite eye for the interesting and controversial. She adds about five tweets per day. The other is @billmeade. He is the best beta tester of books that I have ever met. I wish he would do more, but he does about one tweet every two days or so.”
To put this in context, Kawasaki posts about 35 messages to Twitter per day according to Tweetstats. Of these, again according to Kawasaki:
- One is an automated Alltop announcement
- 10-15 are automated tweets from Truemors
- Five or six are undisclosed messages from other people
- The rest (doing the math, 13-19 tweets or thereabouts) are from Kawasaki
I have no fundamental problem with the automated tweets. I don’t like them personally – they’re the reason I don’t follow @guykawasaki on Twitter – but from an ethical standpoint I have no concerns and from what I understand they work well for Guy.
However, I do have a problem with undisclosed authors.
The problem with ghost-writing in Twitter
The person who is posting many of the messages to this popular account (over 90,000 followers) may not be the person you thought. In fact, that’s the case in up to a third of cases on some days (taking the clearly automated messages out of the equation).
In cases where the ghost writers work on behalf of someone with a large personal brand, this kind of practice is even more grating. The brand is built on the trust of people who believe they are reading the thoughts of the person who is named.
The other authors were, last night, not disclosed anywhere on either Guy’s account or on those of the others involved.
To me this represented a lapse in judgement. Guy has plenty of interesting things to say himself, so why have other people write for you?
Guy Kawasaki responds
I emailed Guy to get his comments on this issue. His answers, in typical Guy Kawasaki style, were up-front and to the point (it was also late last night – thanks, Guy, for the quick reply).
DF: In your interview with Paddy Donnelly, you mentioned that two other people contribute to your Twitter account. This was a couple of months ago. Is it still the case?
GK: There are still two people (and very infrequently a third) who tweet for me. Gina Ruiz and Annie Colbert. Bill Meade does from time to time.
DF: Why did you decide to have other people write under your name?
GK: Because I want a constant stream of the most interesting links in all of Twitter.
DF: Do you feel it is misleading to have other people write under your name on Twitter?
GK: Nope–especially because I don’t hide the fact.
DF: Have you considered disclosing the other authors in your profile?
GK: That’s a good idea. I just changed it. Never thought of that.
DF: How do you feel about the ethical issues raised by ghost writing using social media tools in general?
GK: Surely, there are more important things to think about.
Closing thoughts
I appreciate the honesty in Guy’s answers, although his dismissal of ethical issues worries me. Still, Guy is well known for his pragmatic style so a philosophical debate over ethics is unlikely to be priority #1. For me, however, ethical issues are important ones to discuss.
I’m especially happy that Guy chose to amend his Twitter profile to disclose the other authors. Indeed, I turned-on my computer this morning and he has already changed his bio.
That’s a smart move and, for me, defuses most of the controversy around the issue. While I still think that having other people tweet for you isn’t a great approach, this removes some of my concerns. Still, how do we know if it’s Guy writing in any particular case?
From the poll I ran on a recent post, about two thirds of people think that, with disclosure, this kind of practice is ok.
What do you think?
(Image credit: hawaii)
Twitter Comment
@guykawasaki has lost my trust. respect the man but not the strategy. just unfollowed… http://bit.ly/gfg8I [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher