Authenticity

Authenticity is the sense that something or someone is “real”.

Blogs enable people to publish content, and engage in conversations, that show their interests and values, and so help them develop an authentic voice online.

Authenticity is a balancing act. If one only uses his online presence to promote products and services, he may be tuned out as quickly as one would walk by a street vendor hawking his wares on a city street corner.

One way to develop authenticity in one's social media is to use content that demonstrates and appeals to a range of normal human emotions. Posts can show pride, enthusiasm, concern, empathy, affirmation and sincerity, without being overly self serving or emotional.

Authenticity is simply telling the truth even when it hurts.

Three key steps to being authentic when using Social Media Marketing in your marketing plans:

Admitting when you’re wrong
Asking the community for help, working with the community to build better products
Showing your strengths –and weaknesses –in a public forum

In a Clemson University research study in which the authors developed a scale for measuring the conversational human voice using SMM. The resulting items were:

1. Invites people to conversation.
2. Is open to dialogue.
3. Uses conversation-style communication.
4. Tries to communicate in a human voice.
5. Tries to be interesting in communication.
6. Uses a sense of humor in communication.
7. Provides links to competitors.
8. Attempts to make communication enjoyable.
9. Would admit a mistake.
10. Provides prompt feedback addressing criticism with a direct but uncritical manner.
11. Treats me and others as human.

Being authentic, real and true adds to your credibility and believability all lead to a stronger trust factor that what you say is true and from the heart.

Adding authenticity to your advertising and marketing plan is really very simple.

Just be yourself, share your expertise and add value to peoples lives.