Be Strategic, but Authentic
Posted by February 10th 10
We all know that effective content marketing depends on planning and strategy. You don't just blog or publish every idea that crosses your mind. You think before you speak.
But, one of the casualties of planning and strategy is authenticity. In the quest to sound authoritative and "on top of the game", content marketers forget that being authentic and unvarnished will help them stand out.
Gary Vaynerchuk's recent book Crush It: Why Now is the Time to Cash in Your Passion, offers some insight on this. Vaynerchuck, an online marketing guru and self-taught wine expert, is well known for his hyper-enthusiastic Wine Library wine-critique videos. He has been famously featured on Conan O'Brien and other talk shows, noted as a maverick in the traditionally snobby wine world.
In his book, he talks about his video-making process, which is deliberately unscripted and simply produced. Here's an excerpt from the book:
"One of the silliest questions I get is, 'What kind of mic do you use?' To that I reply, why are you even worrying about that? Your content has nothing to do with the mic, the camera, the lighting, or the set. The day I filmed my first ... show I sent the stock boy out to buy a $400 video camera from Best Buy (now I use a fancy Sony that cost a few thousand bucks, but most of my recent shows I tape on a $150 Flip Cam and they look fine). Watch the show, what do you see? It’s me, sometimes an awesome guest ranging from my dad to Wayne Gretzky to Jim Cramer, some bottles of wine, and a Jets spit bucket. I only invest effort and thought into what I care about and what I need to create great content."
He also talks about how his business blog videos are filmed in his typically messy office and why he doesn't clean it up.
"There’s nothing scripted and nothing staged about my blogs, and I always, always do only one take. No redos, no tweaks, nothing. People walk in and out of the office, I wave to folks passing in the hall—whatever happens during filming is what my audience will see. I’ve filmed posts from balconies, hotel rooms, the street, even my editor’s office—anywhere an idea strikes me. Sometimes the sound quality sucks. Sometimes the light is bad. As long as I get my point across and feel like I delivered the message in an authentic way, I don’t care."
Next time you're thinking about how to get your ideas across, think about whether your delivery is authentic. A relevant thought experiment is suggested by Julien Smith, co-author of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trust. Smith first asks you to imagine doing your work as though it would always be invisible – not eligible for recognition or appreciation – suggesting that your invisible work might become incredible work. He suggests writing a blog post about what would happen if "there were no media whatsoever, nor word of mouth, to get you any attention, forever." It might be something really authentic and really good.
posted in Thought Leadership
July 2010
