Online voices
Social media gurus make a big deal about being authentic, as the best way to create your most effective online presence.
There’s a general consensus that you should be as You as possible, liberally sharing your personality. Gary Vaynerchuk-style. Or Hugh MacLeod.
Many stand firmly behind the notion that all updates must be your own expressions, that anything ghost- or staff-written on the internet is bogus.
The relative raw immediacy of social media may be one reason why people want online exchanges to be transparent. Relationships formed online are vulnerable to suspicion and mistrust. You have to overdo it in the transparency department if you’re going to be believed.
But if we relegate the web only to those who are capable of regularly expressing themselves there, it won’t be of much use. The internet is truly for everyone; businesses of all kinds have to be able to use it profitably. It’s not just for coaches and authors and marketers: it’s not only for language-oriented types.
So the voice of your business online becomes a critical question. If it is not to be your voice, whose voice can it authentically, transparently, and powerfully be? Next post, we’ll look at some possibilities.
