Who should write your blog?

There seemed to be a minor debate about this a little time ago and the answer was the owner.

Of course it is tempting for a busy company exec to hire a PR agency or freelance journalist to write it and if the fee is right to accept it.

I haven't been approached myself. I thought the point was to establish relationships and how can you do that if someone else is writing it?

This last week the issue has come up again. One contact told me he agreed that an e-mail newsletter was not going to meet his aims and that a blog might be a better option. He then told me he was going to hire someone to write it. I explained that he was missing the point. He agreed. I am not sure he understood.

I read with interest a BBC article today that the practise of paying a pretender to write a blog was a little more rife than I thought. But it is causing problems. How do you know your online conversation is with the person you think it is? You cannot be so sure, especially if you are conversing with a high profile blogger or social networker.

If people are unsure of the real identity of the blogger or social networker it will suffer as a channel of communication.

The BBC article claimed that one high profile entrepreneur is paying £1,000 a month to his writer. Every PR has his price and for that dosh I might keep an open mind on the subject.

Until then I am being ethical and sticking to my guns.