Isn’t technology wonderful?
You can automate your Tweets and Facebook updates, so they send your friends messages whenever certain people publish new blog posts.- You can use SEO software, which alters the way your blog posts are written, so they are more Google friendly.
- You can Photo-shop your profile photos, so you look 20 years younger and 20 pounds lighter.
- You can buy Facebook ‘likes’ and social networking followers, so people think you have more influence than you really have.
In fact, you can do all those things and more, but how much of the real you is left, for people to connect with?
Automation and airbrushes
In the social networking age, the people who capture our attention are those who stand out by being human. The masses camouflage themselves into the background. They are the streams of people you see every day online, yet ignore, because they offer nothing that engages you.
They have made themselves invisible, thanks to automation and airbrushes.
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Photo: David DeHetre
Man, there’s nothing like truth and authenticity to get ahead in business nowadays. I was just having this discussion with my wife recently, and we were talking about the immense value of bringing your whole self to the table in whatever you do. It’s a strange dichotomy when you think of it: Technology has made NOT being yourself very easy, but what could be easier than actually being yourself?
Rock on, Jim
Hi Brett. As Chris Brogan said a while ago; automate all the automatic stuff but keep all the human stuff, human. Thanks for the feedback.
I got a DM from a new twitter follower who read my personal blog’s about page that said, “Thank you for being so honest and true.” Which is a great compliment, but confusing. Like…you’re welcome? I didn’t go out of my way to be “myself.”
I guess that’s what you have to do nowadays. You have to put effort into it if you’ve been taught to automate to the point of being a non-entity. It seems so effortless though, doesn’t it? People like people.
Hey Corey. As you said, people like people.
Business is all about people, too. The link between keeping it human and succeeding in business is undeniable, especially in a world, where the masses automate the human stuff.
The best long-term client relationships I’ve had are where they (eventually) tell me “I feel like you’re someone I can trust … talk to … get straight talk from.” It’s often not the answers they want to hear, or the process they want to go through. But it feels human-to-human. I have a sort of “danger Will Robinson” feeling sometimes about the pros and cons of our digital world. And confession, am way overdue for a new photo. A wrinkle or gray hair should not be scary:-)
Trust is huge and it’s hard to trust someone, who’s so detached from their online presence.
BTW: I’d settle for some more gray hairs, Barb
Hi,
Since we’ve entered the social media age, automation became the magic tool for some people to show up themselves in the public arena (essentially Facebook, Twitter).
Those same people hide themselves behind their updates showing very few infos about themselves.
It’s the arrogant way to do business.
What is important to remind is when you use those tools, that can be very efficient in some situations, is to weigh the balance: how do you put yourself under the sunlights and how do you keep your news up to date? That’s the real challenge.
Some good points there, Yael.
Chris Brogan once wrote about it like this. He said something like; ‘Automate the automatic stuff, but keep all the human stuff, human.’
In other words, show people the real you, not a 20 year old photo or one that’s been so heavily photo-shopped that it doesn’t look like you.
Use automation to send your newsletter or blog feed, but speak to the people who comment on your blog and Tweet with you. Speak with the people who connect with you on Facebook and Google+, Linkedin etc.
I guess it’s about showing people who we are and what we stand for.
Thanks for the comment, my friend.
Thanks for your wide answer, it’s always good to have a place to share those important points, my friend. Have a nice Week End, Jim.
Hi Jim, I am proud to say that I do none of the above. I am what I am. I sense that you are too
What you see in my blog, fanpage is what you get. I’m not perfect, but I’m no fake!
Nicely put Joe. I am what I am.
Keep it real is what I always say. Even though we work via websites, customers still deal with human beings at the end of the day. We need to strive to be as human as possible behind our websites.
I think it’s even more important today, Neil. So much of what we do is now visible. Thanks for the feedback.