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Notes from OMMA Social Panel: Authentic Conversations

I just finished a great discussion about how marketers can create authentic conversations in social media here at OMMA Social. Here are the highlights....

Alan Wolk, of the Toad Stool, made an interestesting analogy: "DM was to web 1.0 and PR is to Web 2.0".

Ro Choy of Rock You, addressed the common barrier that many companies are afraid of negative comments, "The more authentic, the less negative comments you get."

Michael Sanchez of CafeMom, responded to an audience question about the potential to "frack" your brand with dispersed, short comments and conversations across the spectrum of social media, saying, "Social media gives you more opportunities to get the communication right."

Craig Engler made a parallel comment as a result of his experience dealing with some criticism that popped up in social media when the SciFi Channel launched their new branding as SyFy: "When you explain what you are doing, people understand and often change their tune."

One of the questions we kicked around was "Why is being authentic so hard?" It occurred to me during the conversation that, as marketers, our first instinct is to focus on making the topic and message authentic for the brand image and personality. But this is only 1 of 3 dimensions of authenticity that need to be right:

  • Be genuine to the medium: social media's unique and compelling differences from other media are self expression and community. Any brand participation in social media must make space for these characteristics.

  • Get the voice right: corporate speak is definitely out. Having an individual like your CEO is great. Having people across your organization can be better. Just have a conversation and if you can't answer a question because you don't know the answer or for business/legal reasons you can't answer, just say that you can't answer the question.

Posted by Jim Nail on June 23, 2009 at 11:18 AM | Email this post Permalink
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Comments

Great post social media is a good way to go

Posted by: perry | Jun 24, 2009 1:35:30 PM

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