keeping it real, but how real?

‘Authenticity’ is the name of the game with social media campaigns. Real voices holding real conversations with customers. But where is the line between your corporate voice and your personal voice and how (if at all should) should you distinguish between them?

For small business owners, who you are as a person is vitally important to how your business is perceived. Your personal voice would be a real asset online. And you can mix personal stories in with your  business messages.

For large corporates, showing a human side is important to personalise decisions made by a company and to personalise experiences for customers.

For example, you can find Vodafone’s external comms guy, Paul Brislen, popping up (casually, but always on-message) regularly on the web with comments on blogs and other online environments in an effort to tell his company’s story and correct information where-ever people are commenting on Vodafone.

Here are two other blog posts on the dilemma of professional/personal online personae:

Social Media Identity: Personal vs. Professional

Can professional and personal social media strategies successfully coexist?