No Time for Social Media? Hire a Ghost!

Posted by on May 20, 2011 in Related Technology Articles, Social Media | 0 comments

By Daniel Casciato

Earlier this month, I was invited to attend the 2nd Annual Healthcare New Media Marketing Conference presented by Q1 Productions in Chicago. One of the presentations on the first day focused on how to overcome internal resistance and prove the value of social media to a healthcare organization’s leadership team.

Although healthcare blogger Ed Bennett, of the University of Maryland Medical System, reported in May that 730 hospitals have an active social media presence with more than 1,400 sites, research has shown that leadership buy-in is the number one reason health systems are not yet implementing social media initiatives as part of their marketing and communications mix.

One of the major reasons cited was the lack of employee resources. During the networking portion of the conference, I also heard many of the marketing professionals in attendance lament over this as well: many PR and marketing staffs are already stretched thin and no one can devote the time that social media deserves. In fact, in the TweetChat during the presentation, someone posted: “The reason hospitals don’t have blogs is b/c the marketing guy knows no one will write the post ongoing.”

So I immediately tweeted back, “Blogs do take a lot of time. That’s why you hire freelance writers!”

In addition to helping my clients better identify which social media channels are the most effective for them and how many channels they should use, I also ghostwrite their tweets, Facebook updates, and even LinkedIn profiles.

I remember I once posted on my Facebook status that I was ghost blogging for a client. A few snarky comments aside, one of my friends asked if it was an ethical practice. She says she’d be reluctant to hire a social media ghostwriter. She’s not alone. It’s a common concern, especially among healthcare organizations since they are always concerned about the impact of privacy laws such as HIPPA.

If you’re going to hire a social media ghostwriter, here are some guidelines to follow to work effectively with your cyber alter ego and avoid crossing that ethical line.

Use Their Voice

Make sure your ghostwriter is using the 2nd or 3rd person voice when ghost blogging or ghost tweeting. Once they start using “I,” they’re lying to your audience.

Plan Ahead

Meet with your ghostwriter and discuss the direction and scope of your social media content. Create a social media calendar and stick with the plan and a schedule.

Be a Guide

Give your ghostwriters topics to cover. For clients who want me to tweet on their behalf, they’ll email me some topic ideas, thoughts on a current event, or relevant news they want to share. I turn that communication into a tweet or a blog post.

Review and Approve the Content

Always maintain editorial control. Be aware of what content is out there because it represents your brand. Never let your writer post anything without your approval.

Guest Instead of Ghost

If you have a blog, open it up to guest bloggers who can provide content. Copyblogger.com and SocialMediaExaminer.com does a great job with this. They’re still providing very useful and relevant information, but giving credit to the true authors.

Ghost Edit

If you want to write your own content, you can still use a ghost writer to edit your copy. One of my clients writes all of her blog posts and tweets, but sends me her drafts for me to polish and post.

Have you been using a ghostwriter for your social media platforms? What are some of the pros and cons? Email me at writer@danielcasciato.com and we’ll share your responses in a future column.

Daniel Casciato is a full-time freelance writer. In addition to writing for the Western PAHospital News, he’s also a social media coach and a social media ghostwriter. For more information, visit www.danielcasciato.com, follow him on Twitter @danielcasciato or friend him on Facebook (facebook.com/danielcasciato).

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I Like Your Facebook Page, Why Don’t You Like Mine?

Posted by on Feb 20, 2011 in Personal Essay, Related Technology Articles | 0 comments

By Daniel Casciato

A client of mine was dismayed that only 20 of his 600+ Facebook friends “liked” his business page. Like other small businesses, he wanted to use Facebook as a no-cost, low-cost platform to promote his products and connect with customers. He was also hoping to get the required minimum of 25 likes to land a vanity URL.

He was more irritated at friends whose pages he “liked” but didn’t “like” his back. He felt that reciprocity was in order. And I agreed.

You Scratch My Back…

If I helped your business out and liked it, it’s time for you to repay that favor. Then I thought about my Twitter account. I know there were people I was following who didn’t follow me. I’ll give Alyssa Milano and Hines Ward a pass. But those close to me? Heck, I even had friends and former co-workers who weren’t following me.

Last week I discovered a new service, ManageFlitter.com, to purge my Twitter account of those people I was following but were not following me back. As I began to delete them from my social media life forever that got me to thinking that there’s probably a reason why some people don’t reciprocate.

Here’s Why I Don’t Follow or Like…

  • One is because your tweets or status updates may be annoying. In fact, I’m guilty of it at times. Instead of using Twitter as an information sharing tool, or to educate or inspire others, some use it to gripe. I know I get turned off when I see others do that so I click unfollow.
  • Another reason you may be unfollowed or not reciprocated is that you’re overtweeting. I tend to do this when my favorite teams, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Steelers, are playing. Thankfully, many others do it during the games, so my tweets often go unnoticed. Still, this can be bothersome to non-sports fans.

But back to Facebook, my client finally got over the 25 like-threshold. In fact, he’s nearing 100+ likes now, so he’s happy.  It just took time, which was one piece of advice I gave him, He also began to post more relevant information and became more conversational with his friends and even on the pages he “liked.” He sent out his like request again for his business and received a more favorable response.

What Some Experts Think…

I threw out my question about reciprocating on LinkedIn Answers. Here’s what some people from around the country had to say:

  • Kate Davids, Online Marketer: There’s no reason, and indeed some reasons not to, follow back. The reasons not to include: bogging yourself down with tweets and page updates that just don’t hold any value for you. For instance, if you’re a personal trainer, you post about exercises, articles you like on dieting, etc. Your follower might be an accountant in another state who likes to work out, but you have no desire to read the accounting articles she posts about. Why would you follow her back? It only clogs up your Twitter stream.
  • Lorenzo Araneo, Screaming Lunatic: I follow back on Twitter those who are real. They interact with others and/or provide valuable resources to my industry. As far as a company, I will follow those who interest me. On Facebook, it’s a bit tougher because usually you want to reciprocate the follow back. Facebook can be more personal because your friends are on there. I have a few friends who just post non-stop so while I do “like” them, I end up using the “Hide” feature so nobody gets any bad feelings.
  • Sherese Duncan, Small Business Strategist, President and CEO, Efficio, Inc.: I’m not sure the important thing here is whether you should automatically reciprocate a “like” or a “follow” just because someone has “liked” or “followed” you. Quality over quantity comes to mind here. Building social media networks is based on trust.  People do not want to fill their networks with spam and meaningless blabber that they don’t care about. Neither should you. Only reciprocate a “like” or “follow” if you feel there’s an added personal or business related advancement or benefit.
  • Troy D. White, Educational Consultant, Cloud Owl Technologies: As an open networker, I do reciprocate requests (and follows). Naturally, we don’t have to reply to all the get-rich-quick messages and MLM schemes. But for people who are making a legitimate effort at connecting or advancing their business/careers, I’m more than happy to take a minute and Like a page or review a resume and offer a few quick tips.
  • Sheri Huesman, Owner, Cybertary Spartanburg: For me, social media is not a numbers game.  I only follow people back on Twitter if I’m remotely interested in what they have to say. I do not follow back if they’re blatantly trying to sell or advertise some “get rich quick” scheme. Same with Facebook, I only “like” who I truly want to follow. I don’t purposely help them get a vanity URL. I don’t take it personally if someone doesn’t “like” me back. There have only been a few instances where I have unfollowed someone because they send way too many tweets.

What do you think?  Email me at writer@danielcasciato.com and we’ll share with our readers.

Daniel Casciato is a full-time freelance writer. In addition to writing for the Western PAHospital News, he’s also a social media coach. For more information, visitwww.danielcasciato.com, follow him on Twitter @danielcasciato, or friend him on Facebook (facebook.com/danielcasciato).

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