Ghostwriters 02/11/2010
 
Creating a thought leading presence is one of the best ways for a firm to position itself and its products against its rivals.  The primary vehicles for doing this are articles, case studies, and white papers written by a firm’s experts or experts outside of the firm.  It’s no surprise that these documents, when well produced, enhance the credibility of a company and its wares.  None the less, there has been a growing concern over the use of ghostwriters when producing these pieces.  That is, the stated author of the article is not the person who actually wrote the piece.  An article on Scientific American’s website illustrates how this issue has come to a head in the pharmaceutical industry, and how there is a call for an outright ban of ghostwriting in that sector.  Ghostwriting is not limited to the pharmaceutical business, however.

Now, if the availability of a good writer, with good industry insight can get a firm to embrace writing articles, case studies, and white papers as a means for promotion, that is not, in and of itself, a bad thing.  There are some inherent pitfalls in the process though.  First is conflict of interest.  If an article seems to be written by a known industry expert, but it is actually written by a firm that will benefit from the content of the piece, there is, in my opinion, a clear ethical problem here.  The second issue is a bit more subtle, and is a little more concerning to me as a marketer.   That is, when the articles and their content are completely foreign to the claimed author.  Invariably, someone will ask the expert about the article, and if the expert cannot answer, there will be egg on the firm’s public face.  Additionally, I’ll argue that this is akin to deceptive advertising. This is especially true when we are talking about services, as we make our decisions of whether or not to use a service provider (financial advisor, lawyer, auto mechanic, etc.) based on what we perceive to be their expertise.  If what we perceive as that person’s expertise actually belongs to someone else, then we are being defrauded.

Yes, I know that experts are busy people and they don’t always have time to write.  I am also fully aware that some people with great expertise in their fields are not necessarily good writers.  So, what to do?  YFind a good writer within your firm or from the outside and have them talk to, exchange emails with, and perhaps even job shadow the expert you’d like to showcase.  Then have the writer draft an article and have it approved by the expert (yes, that means they have to read it), and publish the piece with a by-line that errs on the side of transparency.  That can range from something like: “By Ellen Expert and William Writer,” to “By Brian Brainiac as told to Anna-Marie Author.” 

Remember, good MPR is always authentic!
 
 
It has long been my belief that positioning a firm’s executives and knowledge workers as experts in the eyes of media and the company’s stakeholders is one of the most effective ways to promote a brand, product, or service.  It has been my experience that too few firms take advantage of this opportunity.   To venture a guess, I will say that the reason for this lack of enthusiasm for expert-based promotion is ignorance of this type of promotion or the insecurity marketers feel about this type of activity.  It is with a fair amount of certainty that I claim the reason for both the former and latter stem from the fact that colleges and universities don’t teach this within their business and marketing curriculum, and that marketing firms and advertising agencies largely ignore this approach to marketing.  Fortunately, there is someone out there with his eye on the ball, Ken Lizotte, author of The Expert’s Edge (McGraw-Hill, 2008).

Lizotte’s book is a well written guide to turning garden variety experts into “thought leaders.”  The foundation of his philosophy is based on his five pillars of thought leadership: publishing (articles & book); public speaking; conducting research (he calls it “fresh thinking”); leveraging the internet; and using the media.  The book’s primary audience consists of consultants, small business owners, and people interested in creating a “personal brand,” and for those of you who fall into one of these categories, this book is a must read.  I also want to suggest that The Expert’s Edge is a great resource for marketers in companies of any size.   Lizotte’s tactics for turning oneself into a thought leader can, with a little ingenuity, be used by marketers for transforming their firm’s executives and knowledge workers into thought leaders.

Oh, and for you college professors teaching marketing or PR, this book makes a great complement to many texts.  I can recommend it specifically to those using Marketing Public Relations as supplemental reading for chapters 11 and 12-especially for graduate level courses.
 
 
It is not uncommon for me to be accosted by my colleagues who teach PR from a journalism or communications studies perspective arguing that I don’t take a three hundred and sixty degree view of public relations in my work.  Obviously, I have to agree with this observation, and then I remind them that I call what I do marketing public relations.  It is with great respect that I tip my hat to those who engage in government relations, investor relations, employee relations, community relations and the like.  All of these disciplines use a similar set of tools and tactics to do what they do, but have different purposes within the organizations that they serve.  The above terms are linked to some interesting resources if you’d like to explore them further.  I’ve also posted some more to the Reading box of the blog.

Which one of the above categories is at work when politicians try to sell the voting public on a piece of legislation?  Yep, it’s marketing. (Email me if you’d like to argue this point.) I bring this up because we are seeing some remarkable things happen as the Obama administration and the congressional majority attempt to gain public support for their healthcare legislation.  What I find most fascinating is the fact that politicos have been forgoing press conferences for “town hall meetings.”  They do this, presumably, to make their efforts look more authentic to the public at-large, and to remove themselves from the hard questions and potential bias of the media.  This is a great idea, but we are seeing this strategy start to unravel as the opposition is making a concerted effort to crash the town hall meeting is a very vocal manner.  These “disrupters” are starting to receive more press than the event or legislation itself.  To illustrate, I’ve linked to related articles from CNN and Fox News.  NPR’s On the Media radio show produced a story recently that discusses how right-of-center activists are co-opting tactics historically used by those left-of- center to “influence the political conversation” and get some publicity in doing so.

 

Reflections:

Is there a way that companies can use town hall style meetings to their benefit? How would they differ from a press conference or a focus group? What are the pros and cons of such an approach?

Can companies act as “disrupters” at political or commercial events to the benefit of their brands and sales? What companies might have better luck using this tactic?  What are the potential positives and negatives of such an approach?

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