Authenticity, Professionalism, and Personal Space

This week we've been examining authenticity in the Social Media sphere, and Joanne and I are going to share some of how we approach this aspect.

As Social Media rapidly grew in popularity over the last five years, more and more there have been commercial uses for it. Companies frequently have presences on Facebook and Twitter, for example, sometimes even incorporating such presences into their customer service or advertising plans. With more bombardments of "HEY! LOOK AT ME! BUY MY STUFF!" on Social Media, as well as more instances of spam moving onto such platforms, one of the key strategies that have emerged is a drive for authenticity. Some of your readings this week have dealt with this, and here's another from the Gaurdian.co.uk that gives some good examples.

Of course not everyone agrees. Some have more cynical views, suggesting that by definition a company is always profit driven, and therefore everything they post is inauthentic, as it's all just about your wallet.

But I want to talk more about personal authenticity. In 2005, Thomas Friedman, a Pulitzer prize winning New York Times columnist, wrote a book called The World is Flat.

Friedman was talking about economics, suggesting that geography was no longer an advantage on labor price. This means competition for jobs won't be based on the price of labor, but potentially on other things, like quality of life. It was a revolutionary notion.

Well in the world of Internet privacy -- or perhaps what might better be described as the world of personality and positioning -- the world is also becoming flat. Whether we like it or not, much about us can be learned on the web, and many aspects of ourselves that were once separate are converging. 

This is only going to increase. It is part of why Mark Zuckerberg, in 2010, essentially declared that privacy was dead. He didn't mean that you were going to be stalked more often, but that in some ways, Social Media makes us all public people. A simple search on Google reveals many aspects of ourselves at once: it becomes harder to "dress the part."

Logically, there seem only three choices for a response. The first is to withdraw entirely, to disengage from Social Media and the Internet in general. The second is to carefully craft a public persona for the Web -- the route many celebrities take.

The last is to find an authentic approach and stick with it. This is the route I chose, and the one I advocate fervently to others. It has been rewarding in many ways.

But what does it mean to be authentic? Here's how I answer that:

1.) It forces me to think about who I am, instead of who I want to appear to be. Maintaining a front or mask on the web -- the carefully crafter persona -- is a nice sort of lie. It's about what you want others to see -- it's about that crafted resume and dressing the part, something the last century taught us to do well, but that has always, at least for me, felt vaguely worrying. By choosing authenticity, I still have to think about what others will see, but it is how I think of myself and who I am that are the things I can change, not what I am "wearing" on Social Media.

2.) It forces me not to hide. I have a lot of diverse interests. For many years, I maintained a certain separation between these different worlds of friends, acquaintances, and coworkers. It was the classic attempt to separate personal from professional, as well as lofty aspirations from the day jobs. And you know what? It was hard work. That level of self-censoring is exhausting, and in the end, its purpose seems unclear. By being authentic, I don't have to waste my energy dividing those I know into different themed camps of knowledge.

3.) It makes me be more thoughtful. Yes, being authentic does mean being a bit more open about some matters, sometimes including personal or political beliefs, or matters pertaining to daily life. But it also means being thoughtful about that. By being an authentic but public person on Social Media, I find I am less likely to:

• Use curse words or inappropriate language
• Frequently post on political issues or be disrespectful in political comments
• Post incessantly about trivial matters like what I ate for lunch.

Because what I say will be public, and because what I say will be a reflection of me, I am careful that I am committed and willing to stand by what I say, instead of just throwing in a reactive or half-thought-out post.

Does it help me? Well more and more of my professional activities are centered on very public work, such as speaking or publishing. I find that having a public and authentic voice on Social Media has made talking with and working with others in my field easier and more personable. When I post something, people I work with know I am genuinely interested in the matter, and not merely pursuing some kind of Social Media marketing strategy.