CCO Replica Sample - 14

IDEA GARAGE
MARKETOONIST
WHAT'S ONLINE
EDITORIAL

SOCIAL WEB

VERTICAL VIEW
VERTICAL VIEW
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ceci n'est pas une pipe

Jonathan Crossfield:
http://cmi.media/
crossfield

Who Do You Think You Are?
According to the famous 1993 New Yorker cartoon, "On the internet, no one
knows you're a dog." Are any of us-brands and individuals alike-really who we
say we are? Welcome to the quagmire that is authenticity in social media and
watch your step. It's a minefield!
Jonathan Crossfield

"A

uthenticity" has become one of those
marketing buzzwords I love to hate,
particularly when discussing social media
marketing. Sure, authenticity inspires trust, and
brands need to be trusted if their marketing is to
be effective. But I do take a perverse pleasure in
watching marketers tie themselves in knots trying to
explain how authenticity is to be achieved.
I've read a number of articles arguing that
authenticity must be at the heart of any marketing
strategy ... while also insisting authenticity isn't
about being strategic. Or that authenticity is not
necessarily about being honest or transparent ... but
is absolutely about being genuine.
My favorite contradiction is that authenticity in
marketing is about being more spontaneous, the
clear opposite of calculated or strategic thinking.
The moment you "plan" to be "spontaneous" is the
moment the English language finally snaps under
the weight of all that cognitive dissonance and
retires to a remote island to reflect on where it all
went so terribly wrong.
All of these discussions are really about how to appear
authentic-how to create an artificial authenticity, if you
will. (English language: "That's it, I'm outta here!")
To be truly authentic, your brand-and the
people within it-would carry on without regard for
whether its actions and messages are aligned with
some stakeholder-approved, market-tested brand
ideal. There would be no filter, no self-monitoring.

Your social media team members would say what
they really think, responding in the moment,
instead of representing the brand's more tempered,
structured and commercially sensitive views.
Of course, that's impossible. It's our job as
marketers to guide perceptions, control the message
and create the best possible impression. So our
approach to authenticity must sit somewhere
between the genuine and the artificial, and that
means first acknowledging the contradiction we're
struggling to resolve.
Strategy or no strategy, all social media is
artifice and spin. I don't just mean marketers
and brands either. Every single one of us behaves
inauthentically online.
The curated self
"What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?"
said Alfred Hitchcock to The Observer in 1960.
Today, the same could be said of social media, as it
allows us to conveniently omit and keep private the
dull or less flattering bits of our own lives so that our
friends and followers only get to see a more dramatic,
more sensational, more preferable version of us.
From the news stories and opinions we share, to the
photos we make public, we choose exactly what the
world will see of us and what will be kept private.
Sometimes it can be quite intimidating to
scroll through my feeds and see all of these smart,
hardworking, talented, fit and extremely photogenic
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