Thursday, January 29, 2009

Social Media: Take off the Mask

A few days ago social media guru Chris Brogan posted an interesting video blog  (read my comment) on how the effective business use of social media requires an honest, personal voice, a departure from the typical business voice. (Why does the idea of putting on a business voice for social media communication remind me of Jane Jetson in curlers holding a perfectly-coiffed Jane Jetson mask in front of her face when she's using the videophone?)    

Then just this morning, thanks to a tweet from Brandon Prebynski, I read Seth Godin's post What would a professional do?, which includes this nugget:

From personal YouTube videos to particularly poignant and honest presentations or direct and true sales pitches, the humility, freshness and transparency that comes with an honest performance might actually be better than what a professional could do. Harvey Milk was an amateur politician, not a pro. If you're the only person on earth who could have done what you just did, then you're a proud amateur...You can't skate by when you refuse to mimic a professional. You must connect in a personal, lasting way that matters. That's difficult, but the professionals have no chance to compete with you.

Mr. Godin's post never mentions social media, but his message is highly, obviously relevant. Social media's ultimate impact on marketing has everything to do with the honesty, transparency and freshness that Mr. Brogan and Mr. Godin refer to in there respective posts.  That certainly doesn't mean that any of those qualities can't be faked. But I have to believe that eventually that Jane Jetson mask will become far too heavy to hold up under the weight of community scrutiny. After all, the key difference between a marketing strategy based on the effective use of social media and a more traditional strategy is all about the difference between a community and an audience.

 

Read Seth's Blog: What would a professional do?

Watch Chris's video post

 

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