When considering your personal or a company or a corporate social media policy, one of the key cornerstones should be honesty.
Why?
- Because so much advertising, marketing and PR involves spin, stretches of truth, hyperbole and wild claims.
- Because in social media, authenticity and honesty are valuable commodities.
- Because you can’t “buy” honesty.
- Because an honest, personal voice can’t please all of the people, all of the time. Which makes it untenable for those looking for the bland and inoffensive.
- Because it takes time to build the credibility to be considered “honest”
- Because honesty is rewarded through followers/fans/subscriptions
So how do you talk about things that are negative, bad, disastrous, compromising or just plain bad? Honesty still counts. Just stick to the facts. Don’t lie.
Its that simple.
6 Comments
Same goes for all PR, really.
Spot on, of course, Tip.My only worry is that corporations and agencies will work hard at figuring out ways to *act* honestly. I don't know who said it but the cynical saying comes to mind: “Sincerity is everything – and if you can fake that you've got it made.” The rejoinder now is that the social media culture and technology makes it easier and faster for fake sincerity to be unmasked. But we need to be vigilant.
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Tiphereth, well said!
It is so simple yet strangely difficult for some people to comprehend that they can't fake it, take shortcuts or use a 'cheat sheet'.
Thank you.
Well said once again.
I would add just one thing,
Be honnest because on the Web, you can't hide anything for a long time…
[…] A Google search for “social media honesty” returns many cases where being dishonest diminished the public opinion of a company and their firm. The same search also furnishes many authors that provide sound social media advice. […]