Transparency is the New Black – Why Authenticity is Important for Business

With the surge in social media marketing, I’ve begun to think about the important role authenticity  plays in marketing and in business overall.  Rather than keeping customers and stakeholders in the dark, companies are now being encouraged to incorporate transparency into their marketing efforts. Maintaining a level of transparency establishes you as responsible, accountable and honest; in turn, establishing a level of trust with your consumers like never before.

The days of hiding behind the corporate website are dying. Now, companies are closer to their consumers than ever before, with customer reviews and “tweets” replacing TV commercials and public transit ads. The Internet allows us all to have a say, whether the company likes it or not.

I’m not going to sit here and point fingers at large corporate giants who obviously have not been following through with their message to the public. But for example’s sake, corporations that claim to “collect money from the consumer for local television services because it’s an essential ‘tax’”, even though local television stations don’t see a dime for this “service” and consumers are already being charged, isn’t being authentic or transparent (read more about this at Local TV Matters). Most Canadians reading this post know what I’m talking about. I don’t even have to go into detail. Why? Because thanks to social media and the power of free speech, we’ve already been able to share our opinion on this issue; forcing cable television giants to emerge from their curtain of bogus “PR” messages.

As the example above shows you, transparency allows consumers to make informed decisions about a particular company without having to blindly accept the one and only message we are being fed.  And if that company is ethical and offers a valuable service or product, transparency offers the perfect avenue to rise above the competition, while earning consumer respect and trust.

Being authentic, while maintaining a high level of integrity and value is extremely important for all business, big and small. Thanks to social media, we’re able to gain better insight into a company’s “true agenda” than ever before. Ultimately, the companies who use the public’s opinion to better themselves are seeing the value in a social networking driven world and the companies who don’t are going to exhaust themselves hiding who they really are. Being genuine and allowing the public to see who you really are is essential nowadays.

As a business owner, remain true to your values, be honest with your customers and prospects and don’t try to hide what your business is really about. After all, as social networking becomes even more powerful, it will be the customers  and the best products and services that win.

Published in Marketing, Public Relations and tagged with authenticity, business authenticity, Caroline Pigott, consumers, corporate, CP Style, Marketing, social media marketing, social networking, transparency in business