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Social technology doesn’t make you more authentic
By swilson | June 12, 2009
There was a lot of talk this week at the IABC world conference about authenticity. Some seem to think that social technology makes authenticity possible. Culture, attitude, personality, familiarity with the topic – these enable an authentic voice.
Social technology represents helpful tools, but in and of itself cannot ensure a truly authentic voice. Can it be true that we can only be authentic because of new technology? Let’s look at why we’re hung up on the topic.
We were let down by some corporations. We were let down by government. Let down by the economy. We knew for decades that the voices we were hearing weren’t authentic. Some of the voices we helped to establish weren’t authentic. We talked about eliminating “corporate speak” and “organizational babble.”
I think we are finally at a point culturally (in the US anyway) where we demand a truer voice. For communicators, this calls for great courage (see my recent post on that). It calls us to be consistent, focused and relentless.
So, find your authentic voice and use it. But don’t kid yourself that the technology made it possible. You made it possible.
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