When it comes to brands and Social Media, what exactly does authenticity really mean? In a recent podcast on Duct Tape Marketing, I heard Martin Lindstrom talk about how brands can have a similar neural response as the one that people have with their own religious faith. If that’s the power that brands have on people, how transparent can or should a company become when they engage across Social Media.
I think everyone would agree that you cannot be overly transparent, but I would make the case that you need to make Social Media engagement a very deliberate approach. Conversations should appear authentic, but they should be well grounded in the way that the brand aims to portray itself. It sounds sinister or underhanded, but it really isn’t. As more people enter the overall conversation, one-on-one engagement can still happen, but brands need to have well thought out strategies on how they will engage. And there should be consistency.
Brands produce that neural response in people, because they represent something more. Something beyond a simple company with a bunch of people working in it. Social Media allows a company to open itself up so that their customers can take a peek in, and know that someone is listening and working to provide them the best possible product or service. But at the same time, people want to keep brands to mean something more. I think that you can only do that by tempering pure authenticity with strict brand guidelines that hold true not only for logos, documents, etc. but also for Social Media engagement.
I saw something about this on TV last night
Really? I didn’t have a chance to see it. What where the main things they touched on, and where did they talk about it?
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SuperSonic
@SuperSonic – Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the post.
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