…authenticity
Nowadays, managers consider authenticity to be the key tool for a business’ success.
Especially since the web 2.0 came up, businesses have to offer an appealing internet presence as more and more people do online research. They are looking for someone they can trust, they can have a relationship to.
In the following video Michelle Rock (Senior Product Marketing Manager at EMC) and Jason Broadwater discuss the importance of authenticity and give examples how to achieve it.
Although nearly everybody stresses the significance of a business’ authenticity on the web, opinions largely differ how -or rather by whom- it should be implemented.
Social media specialist Marijean Jaggers, for example, warns small businesses of outsourcing their online presence.
Study Shows Business Blogging Leads to 55% More Website Visitors
Marijean Jaggers argues, that this was not only for the blog’s sake but for the real people, the personal story behind the business is what people connect with. If the head of the business feels overwhelmed by doing this extra job as well, she recommends that is was fine to let someone else do this task. However it should be someone who is part of the team, who has internalized the business’ values and will be seen happily as representative of the business. Jaggers alerts to hire a surrogate social media manager.
Phil Anderson, a social media manager himself, however believes that if a company does not have the budget to hire an in-house social media manager, it is best to outsource this task. He insists that “Each and every client of mine gets much more value than what they pay me for.” When doing his work he claims to have his clients’ business success at the forefront of his thinking, nevertheless according to Anderson his clients have to support him with comments, post and responds when they can.
Jennifer Grigg, the owner of Social Dragon Marketing supports Anderson’s point of view, considering outsourcing your social media a “fantastic idea”: SM Managers “are passionate about social media marketing, connecting and engaging with others. They have the knowledge and the time to invest, which in the end, will yield results. “
berlinlcalling 
Stefochka,
another very insightful post of yours!! Your layout is very appealing and I like how you included pictures, videos, links and quotations! You chose an important topic concerning businesses and I think that you truely mastered to structure an argumentation. You refer to different professionals who have different opinions. I think the only thing missing is your own opinion at the end. After introducing to us what other people say about this topic, I would have loved to hear your own point of view.
All in all, an incredibly smoothly written and well-structured post. Your argumentation is very logic!
Thank you!
Thank you, Sushi, for your thoughts on my post!
Actually I have thought of including my own opinion but then decided to skip is as my last posts were very personal and I wanted to enhance this post to another level.
After all I can say that if you are not familiar with how to esablish an appealing online presence it might be better to outsource it to someone who knows about social media marketing.
However, if you have someone with those skills (or possibilities to develop them) in your own rows, keep your SM presence in your own field, as I consider it to have the greater authenticity.
Hey Stefochka,
I see you decided on doing the A to Z web dictionary and I really like your first article as it deals with an important topic for today’s companies. Unlike your fear of appearing as a summary of wikipedia articles, you managed to write a very informative post by presenting several managers’ point-of-views.
You used a very clear structure and combined several features (text, video, pictures). I especially like the transition from the 4th to the 5th paragraph as Marijean Jaggers’ opinion is totally contradictory to Phil Anderson’s point-of-view. Besides, what Jaggers describes reminded me strongly at the principle-agent problem we discussed in HR.
Great job done! I’m looking forward to your next post!
Hey Stefochka!
The idea of creating an A to Z web dictionary is amazing!
What is web 2.0, I am not that much of an IT person, I did never hear abou it. I must admit that I am definitely not a fan of blogging, as I think too many people do it which takes away its value.
However, you explained the concept of business blogging well so that at least I understand the idea behind it.
Nice job, hope to hear more from you soon!
Hej Merlin! Briefly speaking we can say that in the web 2.0 the user of the world wide web also provides information. (e.g. in blogs)
In you want to dig a little deeper, you can watch the following video, that explains the most important terms. probably you will recognize a lot of terms that encounter us using this blog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffJuTjBLHf4&feature=related
What an interesting topic, Stefochka! I have never thought about the online presence of businesses and whether it is good or bad to outsource it. I think that we can learn a lot from your post since we are also business students and try to do some business blogging. You opened the discussion after introducing the video to your readers which was a wise decision. Thereby I could follow the arguments and recognize the problems better.
I agree with Marijean Jaggers that hiring a surrogate social media manager is not the best option, because someone that is part of the company knows the values and principles and probably is capable to convey them properly. Whereas someone who was hired to represent the company’s image ,first has to familiarize himself with these values and cannot speak from his own experience.
I like it that you keep your posts short but still manage to write about the most important things. Just like sushi030 said I’d also love to hear your own point of view at the end of your post, maybe it is possible in your next post.
I hope you continue your A to Z web dictionary!