Authenticity and Transparency in Social Media: Getting it Right

Almost every consultant or web marketer will tell you that when using social media, transparency and authenticity are keys to a successful presence. However, being transparent and authentic aren’t necessarily the easiest things to do. For instance, being 100% transparent with your social media friends, would involve sharing every detail of your life on a daily basis, and being completely authentic, might, depending on your personality, actually be detrimental to your business. Once you realize those points, then the real question about social media authenticity and transparency becomes, how can you do it right.

Transparency

Being 100% transparent with your social media followers may not be the best business strategy. The fact is that every business has some things that their customers or fans probably just shouldn’t know. Most businesses aren't going to tell you all the intimate and specific details of every aspect of their business. What experts mean when they advise you to be “transparent” in social media is that you should be honest and open as often as you can and about the right things.

What are some of the ways that you can be transparent?

• Own up to your mistakes. When you make a mistake, people are going to know. Hiding the root of the issue or tip toeing around it and muddying the waters is an example of NOT being transparent. The beauty of this is that admitting your mistakes gives you a great opportunity to also be clear about you're doing to fix them.
• Acknowledge and respond publicly to customer concerns and questions. Don’t ignore customer concerns. Using social media allows you audience to have greater access to you and often they use that access to address their questions (good or bad) and concerns about your company. Acknowledging those comments and responding to them creates brand trust. Being transparent does NOT involve hiding your skeletons in the closet. Remember, the people who take to social networks to criticize you when they’re unhappy are often the people who will return to compliment you when they are happy and acknowledging those people and their concerns is a great way to build brand fans. 
• Let everyone know who’s doing the social media posting. It doesn’t matter who it is who's in charge of your social media communications,  your CEO, your marketing consultant, your VP,  your marketing intern or your social media manager, it just matters that the person is in fact, a person, and that putting a face behind a tweet or post keeps things clear for your followers.

• Show some personality! All business and no play makes social users dull. It doesn’t have to be all work all the time. Feel free to post things that you find interesting, funny or amusing. Make comments that you think people will enjoy. Letting people see the entertaining side of your employees is a great way to be authentic, while at the same time building confidence and trust.
•  Apologize when you make a mistake. While acknowledging the fact that you've made a mistake in the first place is an aspect of being transparent, the way in which you apologize, admit your error (hey, we all make them, right?) and address your followers can definitely help you appear more authentic. 
• Get to know your followers. Starting conversations with your customers, asking them questions about their likes or dislikes, getting them to fill in customer surveys, all of these are excellent ways to customize the interactions that you have with your followers and to help build relationships.

Posted by Amberlie Denny at July 22, 2010 8:00 AM

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