One of the great things about blogging is that it facilitates the ability to give and get real-time feedback from your peers. While it is not always easy to hear, sometimes others have ideas that might not have occurred to you, especially as we navigate the murky waters of Social Media
Today Bryan Person called out Topaz Partners for ghostwriting a client’s blog, in other words, not disclosing their identity in the Air Hybrid Blog.
A whole discussion ensued in the comments section about the merits and drawbacks of ghostwriting. But more important to me was the fact that the blog didn’t have a direct way to contact the administrators, except through comments.
To his credit, Tim Allik of the Scuderi Group, the company that owns the blog, immediately made three minor changes that greatly improved the blog and its ability to communicate with its stakeholders:
- Updated its “Contact Us” page to include a media and blog contact
- Similarly updated the “About Us” page and deleted the form they left for contacting the blog and replaced it with a real name and e-mail address
- Updated the blog footer to reflect who owns, designs, hosts and manages the blog
We can argue over fine points, such as, “Is a blog is a blog if it isn’t authored by a known personality?”; however, I think that it is more important to determine if a blog can accomplish what it was intended to accomplish. It seems the Air Hybrid blog’s only real shortcoming was that it made it really hard to get in touch with those writing it and making it clear who was responsible for the content. Not so anymore with their very minor changes.
Let me illustrate with a personal story. When I first started Communication Overtones, I didn’t include my e-mail address for a few months because I didn’t want a bunch of spam. However, after a while, I added my e-mail and found that there was a whole world of networking I hadn’t considered before.
One of the great benefits of a blog is that it connects you with those you may have never known. It is an incredible networking tool. Over the last year, I have partnered with several bloggers in projects for my clients, including Andrea Weckerle, Scott Baradell and Josh Hallett. It has made my offerings as an independent consultant much more dynamic. I have also gathered a vast network of my peers that I have called upon when I needed advice or even resources.
In short, it pays to be accessible, and if you go to all of the effort to have a blog, why wouldn’t you be?
