Authentic Is The New Black

“Authentic” is a word thrown around in marketing circles with abandon.

It’s become just another glib pronouncement used to describe almost every marketing effort.

In the digital space, authentic is a profound concept.  The web, and especially the social web, is all about being authentic.

To quote the wonderful Judy Garland, always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

It sounds pretty simple but you would be surprised at how often the above Dilbert cartoon is too close to the truth.

You will find a lot of blogs by prominent people such as politicians that are just rehashes of press releases written by staff.

And that leads us to our recent work with Katy Gallagher, our Chief Minister.

Katy is the real deal. She really wants to have a conversation with Canberrans. It’s easy to be cynical about that but we found out how serious she was when we worked on her blog.

Katy is also quick on the draw when it came to responding to comments on her blog. No pat answers. No shirking the question.

Straight and direct and not afraid to argue a point firmly but politely.

Watching the blog, we have been struck by how well it reflects what we came to learn about Katy. It really does reflect her as a person who happens to be the Chief Minister.

We offer it as exhibit A of authentic.

It offers insights for any organisation that is feeling their way into the digital world.

As Shakespeare once despaired, God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

Try not to make that mistake in the social media world – it’s bound to do you harm.