The Corporate Blog Voice

Ghost blogging sometimes receives criticism because it's seen as manipulative or misleading. Answer these questions about your business blog:

• Is it written by the head of the company?
• Does it claim to be written by the head of the company?
• Is the author's name displayed on the blog?
• Is the displayed name a real person?
• Does that real person write the blog?

If a blog claims to be written by a real person who works at your company, and this isn't so, then yes, you're being misleading. Blog readers are looking for sincerity, and that's going to be hard to stake a claim to once you're found out.

So is there an ethical paid blogging alternative? Sure there is. Here are some options to consider based on the above list:

• A blog without a named author
• A blog penned by a fictional character made up for your company
• A blog written by a corporate mascot
• A blog written by "the marketing department" or other division of the company

A corporate blog doesn't have to be the voice of a single person - as long as you don't claim that it's being written by the CEO, no one's going to take you to task if it's not written by the CEO.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott has a number of sound ideas for marketing with blogs, and he stresses how important sincerity is. A corporate blog which doesn't make a false claim about its authorship goes a long way towards being that kind of sincere.

Why you should stop spellchecking your blog

It's true that grammatical errors, and even more often spelling errors, can be really noticeable in a blog. Those misteaks may turn readers off, sending the message that your company lacks professionalism - or they may make your blog more authentic.

Currently reading Y-Size Your Business: How Gen Y Employees Can Save You Money and Grow Your Business, in which Jason Ryan Dorsey argues that typos in a blog can seem more sincere to the Millenial Generation, who have been reared on self-publishing technology like Twitter and expect a few errors to slip through.

What this means is that it's more important than ever to develop niche blogs for target audiences. How you communicate with a 20-something or Baby Boomer can be very different, even if you've got the same story to tell.

A review of Y-Size Your Business will be a featured business book review as soon as the book is finished. Follow the blogger for more reviews.