Producing more effective content that helps you build an audience of interested prospects is a common theme in my articles.
In the past few months, I’ve written about ways to show how likable you are and how to make your writing personal, but not self-indulgent.
And I realized that neither of those posts mentioned authenticity, even though it’s a common content marketing topic among bloggers, podcasters, and video creators.
But I regard effective content marketing as a performance, so can it also be authentic?
Rethinking authenticity
In 2007, Brian Clark had some thoughts on this topic. He wrote:
“The secret to effective marketing is to focus on the needs of others, rather than our own egocentric need to ‘authentically’ express whatever we’re feeling at the moment.”
“Authentic” could be bland. “Authentic” could be unstable.
Neither hold anyone’s attention for very long.
The right performance is what holds someone’s attention.
The right performance doesn’t include lies or deception
The standard of authenticity exists because lying and deception is frowned upon. And for good reason.
A content marketing performance is simply learning about your audience’s needs and providing an experience that helps them with those needs.
Within that performance, you’ll reveal true parts of your story that serve others, but what you feel comfortable with revealing will change as you evolve as a content creator and/or entrepreneur.
So we can’t be so quick to judge what is or is not authentic.
Layers of authenticity
In Be a Bad Writer to Be a Great Writer, I published an image of a draft from one of my notebooks, a “Necessary Mess.”
Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have been comfortable sharing such a personal part of my writing process, but I wasn’t less authentic then. In fact, the most authentic choice in the past would have been to omit the image.
I’m glad I now feel comfortable publishing it because I think the example is helpful for other writers to see — but it doesn’t make me more authentic now.
It always goes back to the best piece of content you can create for your audience based on where you are in your journey.
Damn hard performance practice
This quote is often attributed to Nathaniel Hawthorne:
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
My version is:
“Easy content-viewing is damn hard performance practice.”
When your authenticity is audience-focused, you’ll:
- Develop a critical eye that will delete excessive details
- Push yourself further when it’s time to be more vulnerable
Practice leads to powerful performances.
Over to you …
How do you show your audience who you are without revealing details that make you uncomfortable?
What boundaries do you set in your content marketing performances?
Share in the comments below.
Reader Comments (10)
What a neat question Stefanie. For me, feeling comfortable in my own skin helps me be authentic, attracting folks who dig my style. This is tribe building 101. Be you. Write your rump off. Network by serving others. Like-minded folks follow you. All happens seamlessly when you give your life to your craft.
Giving your life to your craft is a process, but it’s very rewarding. 🙂
Great insights, Stefanie! I couldn’t agree with you more that every content creator should really rethink authenticity of content marketing performances, very well stated.
Oh, I like this advice! It’s definitely a little more thoughtful than the “Be Authentic!” you see everywhere. Authenticity does mean different things at different times and places. I think that it’s more important to be appropriate to your audience. An authentic story to my best friend is not suitable for my mom. Haha!
Exactly, Rachel! That’s audience-focused authenticity. 🙂
I’d never thought of it before, but reading this made me realize writers often develop a public persona just like someone who performs or speaks in public would. That persona isn’t necessarily who they are, so much as it is certain facets of them that they’ve deemed useful for this purpose.
I’ve met and gotten to know people online who I met in person later, and they were almost always surprised at how my personality differed at first, because I’m much more reserved in person until I grow to be comfortable with you.
Anyway! How much I reveal in my writing/blogging is dependent on the audience it’s meant for. Something for the professional blog will be more limited (and I’ll keep the swearing to a minimum), but something for a personal audience—well, most anything goes, as long as it’s relevant to the topic at hand.
Thanks for sharing, Catherine!
I know what you mean … my writing is an authentic slice of my personality, but it’s not all of it. If you hear me speak on a podcast episode you get a different slice, and then of course more is revealed in person as well. 🙂
Very well said, Stephanie. I agree that to be an effective marketer, one should have its own authenticity, and being able to love our craft and share it with others rather than our own. A natural and genuine communication with our audience also is the best way to get their attention and have a better content performance.
I never used to put anything personal in my content, always thinking no one would care, or it wasn’t relevant. It’s only been since I’ve started adding (relevant) conversational asides that I’ve started getting much more engagement, with people tweeting me or sharing my content on social media. Sometimes we don’t like to share for fear of seeming less professional, but being human makes us more relatable…which is ultimately more important.
My first business website didn’t have a photo of me. I thought it was “not relevant” …
Of course, I quickly learned that providing the right personal details online is the only way to show you’re a real person and have something to offer the audience you want to attract.
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