We buy products and services every day. Some we need, some we don’t. But we’ve heard good things about them so we buy them. Who have we heard good things from? Our friends. Our family. Our colleagues. People we trust.
Why do we trust them? Because they’re not a mystery to us.
They don’t wear masks. They don’t hide behind veils. They don’t try and fool us with trickery.
They simply are.
You’re in business. You have a blog. You have a podcast. You want to be popular. You want people to like you; connect with you; follow you.
You want people to trust you.
We will. Just don’t wear a mask. Be yourself. Be true. Be honest.
We know you need to occasionally have your professional head on. Your business head. But does that mean you need to trick us? Does it mean you need to be the person you’re not, the business you’re not, the people we’re not?
No.
So wear the mask, but make it transparent. Wear the hat but make it your own. Pull the veil down but let us know it’s still you underneath. Make us trust you. Make us believe in you. Let us know who you are and that it’s you each time we talk.
That’s the way you’ll get our business. Our eyes on your blog. Our acceptance on Twitter. Our recommendations to our friends.
Demystify yourself. It’s not that hard, is it?
photo credit: miss_blackbutterfly
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Gaining trust is one of the most important aspects to marketing yourself or your business. How do you gain this trust? By being yourself and dropping the mask.
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Gaining trust is one of the most important aspects to marketing yourself or your business. How do you gain this trust? By being yourself and dropping the mask.
via uberVU
Gaining trust is one of the most important aspects to marketing yourself or your business. How do you gain this trust? By being yourself and dropping the mask.
via uberVU
I love this post! I can so identify with this, because this is so where I’m at now. Thank you for making it ok to be yourself under the mask. I needed to hear that!
This is a very nice post, Danny. I agree with you. I took transparency to an all-new level yesterday with a post on my blog. I believe you saw that. Although I took a wildly huge risk, I am glad I have done so. I ripped the mask off, heck, I stripped the skin off, too.
In my experience, most people prefer to do business with other people. It is pretty hard to shake a company’s hand or have lunch with a company.
That’s the thing that many people forget, Mark – we do do business with other people. The product or the service is the side dish to the main course that is us. If we can’t trust each other, why would we want to do business?
Twitter: timjahn
I like this, Danny.
I think this is such an important topic because we’re all more likely to deal with trustworthy, honest people than swindlers.
My only question is if it’s ok to wear a mask as long as you make it clear who’s under it and you’re transparent, why wear the mask in the first place?
I guess maybe some people don’t quite like the public glare, so they’ll still try and keep some of their persona private?
Thanks Kat, appreciate that.
That person you mention sounds interesting – good or bad transformation? Makes you wonder what the persona is offline as well.
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It’s not hard and it’s hard…Tricking is part of human nature like lying and deceiving. And it works on masses (or has worked and may still work with most of us) or there wouldn’t be all this tricking around.
I go to the grocery store close to my house and all the products are on sale. 30% off on this bottle of wine, 28% on this over one. Ouch..what do they think? That we’re stupid? mmm I venture to say we are..not as individual but as mass market.
Companies have been in a mass market paradigm and studied have told them: Here are all the ways to trick and manipulate the mass with its herd mentality (which wouldn’t work so well with individuals)..such as they love % down so up your price and give them that rebate.
The herd is such that you barely know people in the herd next to you, you just go with them, don’t talk to them. But things have changed. No more herd, it’s people, communities, they connect, they share, the trust eachother. And companies need to change that herd perception of us.
But moving from the herd to the people mentality is a big change and change is hard, very hard…
It can be difficult to break away from the “herd mentality”, Laurent, especially after having been part of it for so long. Yet at the same time, people have always been individuals – the herd mentality and the masks behind it can only get you so far.
That’s the great leveler about social media – it’s giving everyone a voice and allowing them to shine, to be themselves. The herd is over – here’s to community.
Thanks Danny – yours is one of the few blogs that I subscribe to and really read – simply because I believe you always have a good message. I’ve recently witnessed a person who came on twitter as one persona and is now a different one – weird watching the transformation. I concur with Mark, people want to do business with people. That has been my experience.
Thanks Kat, appreciate that.
That person you mention sounds interesting – good or bad transformation? Makes you wonder what the persona is offline as well.
Hi Danny. Long time listener, first time caller.
Thanks for advocating this. I suspect that if you have an online presence at all, you should be telling your story somehow. If you don’t, people will be getting your story regardless–but they’ll be getting it from someone other than you.
Telling your story also enables you to provide context for content which could otherwise be potentially damaging to your reputation…I have heard a few stories about professionals “coming out” on their blogs (with alcoholism, drugs, depression, mistakes, and other uncomfortable things), and the response has always been increased loyalty and a heightened sense of identification. If you’re a public figure, it’s much more appealing than having everyone find out because of that Flickr photo showing you walking into the strip club with a LED pacifier on a candy necklace around your neck.
People are also experimenting with having two accounts at the same websites: one professional; one personal. I think these can work, as long as they are linked so that a person visiting one site can easily find the other.
Personally, I find it less embarrassing to disclose qualities about myself that some people might find offensive (like the fact that I enjoy using curse words to express myself on my blog) than to force myself into acting as if I don’t have those qualities at all, then struggle to replace them with something contrived once they are provoked. Also, there’s something impressive about someone who is simultaneously a person and a professional.
I’ll stop taking up space on your blog now. Thanks again,
-Dre
Hi there Dre,
Great to have your voice for the first time. I’d seen you around on my wife’s blog and wondered what I could do to entice you over here – the wait was more than worth it.
You make a great point about people telling their story. As you say, using the excuse “but I’m scared someone will say something bad about me” doesn’t really cut it – they already are. The key is opening up and showing yourself and who you are.
People will always have opinions about others – your voice is the only thing that will either cement that view or refute it. It’s up to you which one .
Thanks for dropping in to speak – don’t leave it so long the next time
Nicely said, Danny. Word-of-mouth is such a valuable communication and marketing tool for so many professionals and businesses, it’s simply not worth losing the target audience’s trust.
Happy Friday!
Doesn’t matter what medium you use, Jamie, online or off – word-of-mouth is the trust factor that real success is built on.
I like this. Very true words.
Thanks for putting this out there. I think more people in general, businesses or not, need to hear this.
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I like this. Very true words.
Thanks for putting this out there. I think more people in general, businesses or not, need to hear this.
Brilliant article ! Not only was it well done, but you spoke straight from the hip, just the way I like it !
Blessings, Mary Ellen Armstrong
MaryEllenArmstrong.com
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/maryellen
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Brilliant article ! Not only was it well done, but you spoke straight from the hip, just the way I like it !
Blessings, Mary Ellen Armstrong
MaryEllenArmstrong.com
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/maryellen
In some ways, Danny, you’ve given my the words to what’s been in my mind for a long time, thanks for excellently expressed ideas. I’ve had these thoughts at the foundation of the home ventures we work with because the leaders of the products I use, promote and market are on the same page.