Authenticity in Social Media : Scalable Intimacy.
Just caught a nice post at Michael Troiano’S Scalable intimacy blog. He was observing the effect of authenticity in social media, taking the success of pundits and luminaries as a barometer. And, appropriately, wondering how this might scale for brands.
For me, authenticity is the answer. Authenticity is the foundation of consistent communication, and of sustainable enthusiasm. It’s what we all crave and respond to. It is the fuel of followship, in ways visible and not.
He points out that Chris Brogan is a natural helper–in real life and in the digital world. Laura Fitton is strong on relationships and empathy comes through.
I’m with him on how having something people can use and sharing it passionately can be infectious. Valeria Maltoni is a natural conversationalist. She converses. People are touched.
In terms of where this is going for brands, well it’s not pretty. Loren Feldman may be able to embrace his inner asshole, but P&Gs shareholders don’t want to think about products made by tiny hands in far away places, manufactured and shipped here at the expense of the environment all so Walmart can sell us shit advertisers have to invent needs for.
And sure AG Lafley gets it, but authenticity isn’t a brush you polish turds with, so I don’t see a sustainable future for brands whose products suck at the core. Not in their current form anyway. They can co-opt values and serve a community as a campaign strategy, a la Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, but if they “got it”, it wouldn’t be a campaign, but a commitment.
They’d set up a house in that community, establish themselves as leaders, and lead. Make their marketing about moving the needle on an issue that matters. Make their metrics about statistics related to the issue they’re addressing.
But that’s a long tail play and the metrics they’re responsible for now are part of a quarterly returns systems that has them turn a cool, important and well executed idea like Real Beauty into some shit about spas. My wife can tell you more–I stopped paying attention the second they stopped doing shit that matters.
What was the question? Oh yeah. After making the point that great art reveals the artists nature:
“That’s why most hip-hop is crap, and Jay-Z is an artist”
he says he’s still peeling the onion on what this means for brands.
When he gets to the heart of the onion, I think he’ll find that authenticity only works long term if it goes to the core. Most bloated brands have no soul at that core. There are a lot of cards you can play at and play out, but authenticity is a pretty hard one to fold on.
