Brand Humanization:
TRANSPARENCY VS AUTHENTICITY
BY: PAM MOORE
A
AS MANY marketers and business owners are challenged to make
their brands become human a few of the questions we hear most are:
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What do I talk about?
How do I know how much is too much?
What do I share?
What if my competition is watching me?
What if my boss is listening?
What if our board of directors is watching us?
Do people really want to know what I ate for lunch?
No, not all people want to know what you ate for lunch. Some may
but most don't. Depending on how connected you are with your
community they may be interested in what you eat, where you go for
breakfast.
However, fortunately, they aren't going to determine if they follow
you, like you or buy from you based upon if you ate a croissant or an
egg sandwich.
If you take a look at the questions above, the root of them is “how
much do I share and with whom?”
To understand this, let's first dig into the definition of authenticity
and transparency.
AUTHENTICITY: AUTHENTIC — ADJ
1) not false or copied; genuine; real: an authentic antique.
TRANSPARENCY IS HOW MUCH YOU SHARE, AND
AUTHENTICITY IS THE TRUTH OF YOUR WORDS
AND ACTIONS.
The biggest mistake people make when it comes to building their
social brand is blurring these two words. They often end up in a social
brand cycle where they never feel comfortable sharing, so they sound
like corporate speak 24/7. Or they may do the opposite and share
everything including where they buy their toilet paper!
Many confuse transparency with authenticity and think that if they
don't share the same thing with everyone then they are not authentic
or real. This couldn't be further from the truth.
AUTHENTICITY DOES NOT REQUIRE SAME LEVEL
OF TRANSPARENCY WITH EVERY RELATIONSHIP.
The truth is you will, and should, have different relationships with
different people. Relationships are human to human and are not
based on cookie cutter conversations or content frameworks.
It is this uniqueness that makes relationships so special and unique.
It's the type and varying level of information shared between two
human beings that builds trust and enables us to nurture real
relationships. Relationships that bring both personal and professional
benefit.
Because we have a unique relationship with each person, doesn't
mean it's a fake or that either one of us is not being authentic. We all
connect in different ways.
3) entitled to acceptance or belief because of agreement with known
facts or experience; reliable; trustworthy We share different details about our brands, our personal lives with
one another, different layers of transparency depending on who we
are, industry norms, who is in our community and most importantly
who the recipient / person is on the other end. How much we share
may very well determine over time how the relationship is nurtured,
how close it becomes and the benefits achieved.
TRANSPARENCY: TRANSPARENCY — ADJ KNOW YOURSELF. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.
1) easily detected or seen thru. To understand this and truly inspire and connect with the people
within your communities, you must both know yourself as well as
your audience.
2) having the origin supported by unquestionable evidence,
authenticated; verified: an authentic document of the Middle Ages;
an authentic work of the old master.
2) readily understood.
3) characterized by visibility or accessibility of information, especially
concerning business practices.
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