The Battle for Social Media Authenticity

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“The personal branding movement has reduced individual communications to a contrived popularity contest,” he said. “I’ve heard all the arguments for doing this right, and while they sound good, personal branding has diminished authenticity, turning it into a fool’s pursuit.  What means more is looking good and sales. So, we now have the metaphorical fashion show instead interpersonal interactions dominating the social web.”

Whether discussing social media for corporations or for personal branding, the industry will continue to grow and mature and there will be more battles along the way. Social media strategies, while a hot topic of conversation, are in their infancy and are trying to grow to meet very complex expectations. As businesses mature their programs they will realize the potential of maintaining authenticity as a social media driver and as part of their corporate culture. Currently, right or wrong, it’s still very hard for corporations to build authenticity into a business case and justify spend around it.

So, what can companies do?

“Experimentation is key. I believe that social champions are evolving into champions of change and internal transformation. I actually see businesses changing how they approach social media to deliver value to the consumer,” Solis said. “We’re at the end of decades of moving away from the customer, automating their experiences, and interpreting loyalty by how much they spend not how much they drive business and that’s changing because of the tenets social media encourages. But not of this is possible without the voice of the consumer and employee gaining strength and the voice of change agents who are making a difference internally.”