Transparency

I have a few pet peeves about social media including transparency, accessibility, and currency. Today I was thinking about how I incorporate these into my own work and I got on a bit of a kick to write. So let’s start with transparency.

From a Ning Creator perspective, this is easy to relate on a surface level about whether to make your network public or private. However, I see it going much deeper than that. It’s more a matter of how much you share about who you really are and what you are really doing. These are more imperative than ever in the emerging social dynamic because businesses are often operating on the same level playing field with the people they are trying to impress.

I caught on to this about 4 or 5 years ago when I first started researching Facebook. I found my way to a group where one member decided it would be a good idea to post an advertisement directing the other members to their site. Shortly, a number of members and the group creator just went off on this guy talking about how it was an “insult to their intelligence” and “condescending”. That traditional paradigm of “We sell/ You buy” just doesn’t cut it on an open forum.

Now it’s easy to see how this mistake was made. There’s a certain measure of prestige and entitlement that comes with being a traditional brick & mortar business owner. First off, you can brand yourself as a business, and having a company with products or services you can relate to consumers through those operations. You want Macy’s, Ford, or Coca Cola and you got it. Don’t forget there’s always been a personal service and relationship building element behind successful salesmen, but increasingly that was deferred to when people walked in the door. For advertising, especially when talking economies of scale, it became much easier to package a value proposition into a brand.

Thus the “ad” for “advertisement”. Branding in advertisement works best when it is professional, impactful, and concise. You pitch your business and catch customers. There’s a reason why this has worked so well for so long, but in the above example it was obviously not working out for that guy, lol! The reason is there is a newfound assumption of equality and a common sense about online community.

Too some extent, one can appear as hiding behind the brand. The façade of being a business is just that- online it’s easier for people to see you as just another person trying to make a buck like everyone else. In other words, sometimes when you commit to presenting yourself with the traditional anonymity of a business, people choose to see through it and are simply not impressed.

So in this modern context, it’s often better to present yourself for who you really are and what you are really doing. It takes a greater degree of honesty and self-disclosure to relate to people and build the necessary trust that can lead to doing business. At the same time there’s a tough balance. There’s also the typical affiliate model you see where your relative or someone you thought might be your friend comes and tries to sell you on something. You can’t get away with trying to be more personal if all you really want in the end is to make a sale. People don’t buy that so much anymore. I’ve actually seen a shift where it is sometimes better now to be straightforward and get to the point of what you have to offer. The key may have more to do with sensitivity to the social dynamic, right timing, and appropriate place. In social media, it’s probably better to assume advertisement is unwanted, there is no good time, and in the event it’s better they go to you at your place.

Well here we have Ning social websites, and just how tempting is it?! Are you some capitalized corporation or just someone else with a social network? Are you really interested in getting together with people on your theme, or are you only concerned with stat valuations, traffic, ad revenues, and membership fees?

Social media marketing is increasingly becoming big business. With that, you can see the numbers games and pitch tactics adjusting. People are getting hired as brand ambassadors, they’re being asked to network across a multitude of platforms such as Facebook, and they’re honing in like pigeons to “whatever works”. As the so called prospect, how does that make you feel? If you don’t like that feeling that someone is trying to manipulate you or use your relationship, then how do you apply that to how you present yourself and what you do- especially as a Ning network creator?

It’s food for thought. Trust me…I look in the mirror all the time. What I’m doing here is somewhat of a fine line in itself, don’t you think? I can tell you this is a principle I’ve been incorporating into my own business model for years now, a subject I’m happy to discuss in greater detail here, and a topic I think would be well served with examples of how we are applying the concept to our social networks.

Comments and participation welcomed but not expected. I’ll likely roll out some other articles such as accessibility and currency, but my tip for Ning Creators right now is most certainly “Transparency- think about it and apply it to your network”.

Best, Anthony

FOLLOW UP: Interested in learning more about my thinking on transparency in social media, how I'm applying it to my network, and perhaps how it can relate to what you are doing with your Ning site? I just posted a discussion to expand upon this article on my Ning Creators group A Social Media Dojo here- http://creators.ning.com/group/a-social-media-dojo/forum/topics/tra....

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