One part of that Nightline report I can’t get out of my head… It’s how Ben Popken Consumerist.com refers to companies that monitor blogs without interacting… “ghosting.” Dear WillVideoForFood reader. Are you a ghost?
P.S. Ben- would you please invite me to post on Consumerist so I can stop ghosting your blog? I’ve been biting my tongue for long enough!
Monitoring blogs is the only way to get familiar with what individual bloggers say.
I have been ‘ghosting*’ many a blog over the last 5 years and there are about 19,800 people ‘ghosting’ my political blog every day! This is based on an estimate that only 10% of my readers actually comment. What am I going to do?! I have been ‘ghosted’ over and over again!
*for ‘ghosting’ read ‘reading’ throughout.
I must be old-school. I call it ‘lurking.’ ANd now with my own blog, I get lurked all the time. Even by my own family.
And since I’ve posted all of two times here, have I been de-lurked (or is it de-ghosted)?
Since the WVFF post-to-read ratio is .000023… both of you qualify as full-fledged participants.
I see monitoring blogs and ghosting as different. Monitoring is learning about your customers with interest. Ghosting is watching them and never engaging.
And I’m hoping that (with the help of people like Adriana) companies realize that… in the age of consumer-generated media… the best companies will go beyond ghosting.