Authenticity - the Key Ingredient
I have been doing a lot of talking, writing and thinking about authenticity lately. With all the hype around social media networking, and really any attempt at building/developing a relationship, being authentic is one of the main ingredients.
Authenticity is essential for building meaningful and lasting relationships. When you are truly authentic you do not cater to what everyone else wants you to be. You are yourself and that comes across in all that you do. It frees you up and eliminates the stress of having to be "on" at certain times. It makes you dependable. It is the true meaning of having integrity.
Of course, another main ingredient in relationships is trust. The In Over Your Head Blog recently posted a list of 5 books (6 if you count their book Trust Agents) that are great at explaining the concepts behind marketing terms like "social capital" and "social proof".
These are not new concepts. They just seem to have resurfaced with all the hype and excitement surrounding social media marketing. These ideas have been around for a long time and should be incorporated into any attempt at building, developing and maintaining relationships.
Do you know of any good books, videos, podcasts etc on this subject?
Categories: social media, social netwroking
Tags: social networking relationship building social capital personal branding social proof online presence customer relationship social media
Well I think its good to shead some lite on the subject, I would let us all consider all aspects of it.
Authenticity has its paradoxical components. Sartre illustrated these in his extensive writings, pointing to the conflict between seeing the self as unique and different from the world, but the self is embedded in a world which clearly contains other such beings. Stated as a doctrine authenticity can be thought to be self-defeating. This is because it is thereby classified and becomes part of the non-self, an object of perhaps methodical study among others. This is opposed to the notion of the individual self which seeks its own solution independently of competing external ideologies. Another criticism is that the solution to Sartre's difficulties involves some compromise to allow unique individuals to co-exist in a way which is acceptable to all of them. Therefore public ethics or morality may be a limit on authenticity. Because authenticity is such a slippery concept, and because it can never be rigorously defined, it can be seen as a threat to rationality or to Enlightenment ideas about the transparency of laws.
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