Publishing Content Through a Single Persona

[Leighm]

Hi,

I have a client who's made some changes to their content strategy.

They want to use a single author for all content produced and publish, to maintain a consistent identity across the web. This single author is a persona e.g. "Joe Bloggs" but this is not a real person.

This works fine for creating and publish content (for their blog and outside blog posts). It allows many people to work on creating and publishing content under the same name, which for a number of reasons makes good logistical sense.

The problem arises when it comes to social marketing. They have set up a Facebook and Google + profile and Facebook and Google business pages.

The main issue is that they are finding it difficult to friend other people because nobody knows this "Joe Bloggs" persona.

Can anybody offer advise on how to approach this kind of strategy.

Thanks,

[Leighm]

Thanks Miriam. In an ideal world, I agree with you, but there are many reasons why this system will work better for them, so it looks like they will be going with it.

The "Joe Bloggs" name was just an example name. They will, of course, be using a believable looking name.

Thanks,

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Leigh,

Have to agree with Catalyste on this. While using a nom de plume has historical precedent in the publishing world, online, people are very into being 'real'. The last name of 'Bloggs' is a dead giveaway that this is not likely a real person. If they'd gone with Joe Jones, that could be a real person, but Joe "Bloggs" would instantly look odd to me.

I ghostwrite for business owners and tell them it is fine to use the business owner's name on the content they purchase for me for promotional purposes. This is likely the route your client needs to go with, too, using his/her own real name for the content he/she is paying to have written for his business.

[Catalyste]

I personally think that everyone should be comfortable enough to blog on his name or on company name. I don't think creating a fake identity is ethic. It should not be done in my opinion.