“I went to Second City, where you learned to make the other actor look good so you looked good and National Lampoon, where you had to create everything out of nothing, and SNL, where you couldn’t make any mistakes, and you learned what collaboration was.”
Bill Murray
Saying “Yes…and” is the basis to all Improv. This cardinal rule, whereby every offer is accepted and a scene advances, shapes the relationship of the characters on stage. Characters come in all shapes, sizes, genders, ethnicity, ages – throw in their wants, needs, goals, and conflicts and the possibilities are endless for the powerful imagination that is the art form of Improv. Improvisers love to get into the heart and soul of their characters, we need to know what makes them tick, what makes them get out of bed in the morning, their goals and aspirations, their fears, their vision, right down to their favourite breakfast cereal.
Why Ghost Bloggers are Like Improv Artists
Ghost blogging demands the same need for detail to speak in the voice of today’s business executive.
Blogging in the corporate sector is a marketing reality today. Embraced by giants such as Cisco, Microsoft and Oracle, this direct communication with customers, prospects, employees and partners can boost revenue, image and name recognition by broadening a company’s appeal and visibility across the digital universe.
Ghost blogging is also the new normal, albeit still a quiet one. Ghost blogging for a busy executive ranges from reinforcing corporate messaging to showing an executive’s personal side. The theory goes: frequent posts breed familiarity, familiarity enhances trust, trust builds business – and the cycle continues. Of course funny helps. It’s what improvisers love to do, it’s what we’re good at.
Authenticity Makes Ghost Blogging Work
Recently ghost blogging has come under fire for being a fraudulent form of writing and the backlash has spread to the writers themselves, seemingly fed up with not having their name at the end of the piece. Ghost bloggers, or social media consultants as some brand themselves, believe if a CEO’s name is on something written by someone else and he didn’t have anything to do with it, essentially that’s lying. Not so for the actor/researcher/blogger who feeds off the challenge of getting to know absolutely everything about the executive, her company, her vision, the culture, the competition, the sector and the future. She’ or he is another character on stage and we embody and personify that individual in a way that is uniquely their voice with our own innate skill-set of producing authenticity.
Teams, Collaboration and Reach
An art form in and of itself, this relentless pursuit of perfection has at its core a remarkable similarity to many of the executives themselves. Nothing goes out without the nod of the executive and it often amazes me how in sync we are. To those who object, we who remain loyal to this effective marketing tool want to remind them that Barack Obama doesn’t write his own speeches, the CEO of Ford doesn’t write his own commercials and celebrities hire ghostwriters to pen their autobiographies.
We need to look at this from the business, branding, and marketing standpoint. It’s simply working with a broad and trusted team to extend reach. It is an art form with business acumen – an authentic voice that relies on a collaborative approach. It’s a one-to-many message whereby business leaders can hone their capabilities to extend beyond their community and build intimacy with a global audience.