How Real Is Real in Social Media?
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How Real Is Real?
I made a "Rant" post on Google Plus the other day – I specifically called it out as such – about the way some Social Media "dahlings" who for whatever reason, are being offered experiences that five years ago would never have been offered to them. It is becoming increasingly popular to offer interesting experiences to bloggers, in the same way that Journalists have often been sent on trips, exposed to unique experiences, all in an attempt to position a company, brand or product in a different way.
This is a great thing for many bloggers and Social Media advocates. They get to have experiences that the rest of us can only dream about and then relate those experiences without the, sometimes overwhelming, polish of a true journalist. It's more like hearing about it from a friend or at least a good acquaintance.
How Real Is Life?
What I have noticed among some writers is a sense of them being too "good" for real experiences. I started to wonder about where these people have lived and worked prior to deciding to jump on the Social Media bandwagon. Sure enough the people that had posted the articles that made me wonder have come from other industries – some from entertainment, some from real estate, others from apparently no where in particular. What they all have in common is that they are strong advocates of Social Media being "real", they are happy to berate brands when they perceive them as having "faked it". However, when they are given the opportunity to take part in something that can only be described as being very "real" they describe it as intense or shocking or strange.
Which begs the question – where do you live? I have to remember of course that not everyone enjoys adrenaline fueled experiences, and, I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie – I've certainly had plenty of weird and wonderful experiences in my life, so perhaps I am a little desensitized to some of the things that happen in life. But for the life of me I can't imagine that these people, having reached the age of majority and then past it by at least a decade have managed to live such sheltered lives.
How Real Are Brands?
Given that brands are in fact totally fabricated, insisting that they "keep it real" seems somewhat ironic. It of course depends on how you define "keeping it real", at one end of the spectrum you have pundits who's persona is that of the angry "anti-everything" guy. He posts articles and videos whose only purpose is to berate and belittle. This type of person defends their actions by saying they are only interested in "real" conversations. At the other end of the spectrum you have the social media accounts run for celebrities by teams of "people" – about as fake as you can get.
Is it any wonder that marketers are left scratching their heads and wondering how Social Media is supposed to work? Of course "real" is a very subjective term. What I consider to be real, might not be real to someone else. But if those of us within the world of digital marketing who are acting as thought leaders/consultants etc. can't come to a consensus on how real is real then we can't honestly expect anyone else to either can we?
So how real do we want things to be in Social Media?
image used under CC License by the G™
