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‘Authenticity’ rather than carefully honed messages, is what people want to hear in an age when ‘everything is up for question’ Link >>

The Angel Blog stresses a point I’ve been thinking about, especially while planning my upcoming business blogging talk at the local Chamber of Commerce.

While I agree that blogs, at their best, deliver “authentic voices” I struggle to explain what it is about blogs that do this.  Blogs are just web pages.  We’ve had web pages for years, why is the authenticity just coming out now?

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

1. Jim Seybert (on Fools Box) on September 13, 2005

   The difference is in the simplicity of the process.  A traditional web site requires the idea to be filtered through someone with the technical skills to design and maintain the pages. The final product is never exactly what the envisioner had in mind, but rather the work of someone who took the originator’s idea and brought it to life.

   On the other hand, a blog is fairly simple to set up and maintain: shortening the connection between the initial idea and the end-reader.

   I’d say blogs are more authentic in the same way hand-made pottery is more “real” than factory-made dinnerware.

   The challenge for this new medium is that it will, as has everything else since the beginning, eventually spin down into something less robust than it is now - at which time we’ll all be looking for the “next thing.”

2. Michael Boyink (Author) on September 13, 2005

   Hmm…

   On the one hand I can agree. 

   On the other hand, we’ve had websites with “content management” interfaces for years, where end users can go add content to a site without involving technical staff.

   It almost feels like it has more to do with the structure and organization of blogs being date-based vs a “traditonal” site, where every piece of content has to live under a subject-based navigational structure.

3. Jim Seybert (on Fools Box) on September 13, 2005

   Agree - it does have something to with the “structure.” Even with sites that have regularly fresh content, the thing is still less than organic - they “feel” planned and controlled.

4. Frank Johnson on September 13, 2005

   The one thing I would add to Jim’s comment about an idea having to be “filtered through someone with the technical skills to design and maintain the pages” is that, even worse, the idea has to be filtered through marketing folks who want to craft the message to be perfect - marketing folks like me! :)

   And then it probably has to be filtered through legal folks who want to make sure that all risk is mitigated.

   Before you know it, the authentic voice of the people within the company has become a stale shadow of what the company really should be conveying.

   Blogs as we know them largely remove the filtering. I think it remains to be seen whether the filtering process begins to invade the blog space at businesses.

5. Hugh on September 15, 2005

   Everything that appears on a traditional website is carefully considered, possibly by a committee and maybe with outside consultants.  Authenticity is drained out by the process.  A blog is usually written by one person-  a human being not the sales director - that person has his or her own style and interests.  It’s written speedily and off the cuff.  People respond in the comments and the blogger replies opening up a conversation.  All this feels “human” rather than “corporate.”
   Anyway, thanks for dropping in at the Angel Blog.  Hugh

6. Michael Boyink (Author) on September 15, 2005

   No, I’d still disagree, partially at least.  I’ve worked with companies where the website is the sole responsibility of one person, and the content hasn’t been “carefully considered”.

   There’s still something undefined out there…where I could give one person a CMS to author and maintain a traditional page-based site and the chances for resulting authenticity would be less than that same person given a blogging tool.

   Maybe it is the comments, maybe its the overall information architecture of the blog and it’s abilty to scale up to hold much more content than a traditional site.

   Or maybe it’s all in our heads, set in the expectations of use around the blog and how the blog has been pitched and sold to the buyer.

7. Frank Johnson on September 16, 2005

   How about the fact that writing one page of content is not the end of the process with a blog? Something akin to Hugh’s comment that the content for a blog is written “speedily?”

   If I only have to write one page of content that will most likely never change, I’ll take more care with it (even if I am the only person involved). But if I know I’m going to write something the next day as well, am I more likely to just “write in my everyday voice”?

8. Michael Boyink (Author) on September 16, 2005

   That’s sounding closer…less about the technology than our expectations of it.

   But a bit freaky too…we’re more authentic when we’re more disposable?  ;)

9. Clay Clarkson on September 17, 2005

   This is just one facet of many for this discussion. Not an answer, just a perspective.

   I see a website as more like a beneficent oligarchy—ruled by one or the few for the benefit of the many. A website visitor does not normally expect to affect the content or the views of the site. It is there primarily for the visitor’s benefit, not for his or her input.

   I see a blog, on the other hand, as more like a participatory democracy—it is the village square where everyone has an equal voice. Anyone, if they choose, can contribute to the content under discussion at the moment, and it is immediately (usually) entered into the public record. It’s not about credentials, or experience, or reputation, but only about participation.

   I believe it is this dynamic of immediacy and participation that has set blogs apart from websites. I’m no one special, but on a blog such as this I have a voice, and my contribution, good or bad, will become a part of the content of this section of the web-village square. For a moment, I am on an equal plane with the blogger. That is a powerful, almost narcotic, concept!

   I don’t think “authenticity” is the real issue. I’m not even sure that idea can ever be measured or even assured (how would one grade authenticity?). However, I do know that MY contribution is authentic and real.  Even if no one reads or responds to my input, I still feel more powerful just because I have a voice where before I had none.

   What that tells me is that if I want to write an effective blog, it’s not about trying to be (or appearing to be) “authentic,” but about writing with an awareness of what my reader is expecting—to be invited to have a voice. They want to know, in a sense, that we are equals and I want to hear what they have to say.

   Sorry for being so wordy. It’s a curse. But good or bad, there it is.

10. Michael Boyink (Author) on September 17, 2005

    Thanks Clay…

    Authenticity is the issue…‘cause this is my blog and I say so..:D

    While I agree you certainly can’t measure authenticy, I think there are means to assure it:

    - Having a prominent “about” or “bio” page for the blog owner.

    - If it’s a group blog, making sure each blog post has a “posted by” which is someone’s real name and preferably link that to a bio for that person.

    - Using the first person voice.

    - Mixing in the occaisonal mention of personal life (I sorta take this to the extreme here on boyink.co with my hobby pages).

    - Using pictures of the blog author(s) - (but I claim copyright to posing with pogo sticks..;)

    -Posts that vary from opinion to questions to rants to what strikes the author as funny.

    Reaction…comments…conversations are great, and a definite part of the value of blogs, but I’m still convinced an effective blog starts with a real person using an authentic voice (and if you have to “try” or “appear” authentic then you aren’t).

    Without that as a basis, all the value of the blog gets sucked out in a second..  As my evidence, take a look at these “character blogs”, and see if they fall as flat with you as they do with me:

    http://www.thecaptainsblog.com/

    http://www.sparklebodyspray.com/

    http://www.moosetopia.com/

11. Clay Clarkson on September 17, 2005

    OK, you win. It’s authenticity. I’m new here and I perceive a little late that this may be one of your hot topics. I’ll lurk for a while until I get better informed.

    But… Just consider me the annoying guy on the village square, but it seems that many of your points are about credibility more than authenticity. I always want to know that a blog is credible, but I have no way to know if the person blogging is actually being authentic, or just knows how to appear authentic by using all the right techniques. If the term applies at all to blogs,  it seems to me it’s as much about perception as it is about reality.

    That said, I will defer to your experience and insight and start evaluating blogs by my perception of their authenticity, and see how it affects my opinion of the blog. This should be interesting. I’m giving you a 10. It’s the pogo stick.

12. Michael Boyink (Author) on September 18, 2005

    You do make a good point about credibility vs. authenticity.

    I suppose it would be possible for a blog/blogger to be credible yet not authentic, but it seems like this would only be temporary, as the feedback / commenting nature of blogs would bring this to light…especially in the commercial world, where there is more opportunity to interact with a specific entity than just online.

    Hmm…this starts to remind me of a personality test I once took that strove to determine your “natural” personality vs. your “adapted” work personality.  My results were very close - kinda like Popeye in that “I yam what I yam”, but others in the group had large gaps in their natural vs. work-adapted modes, which naturally induced stress into their jobs.  I wonder if that group would either naturally not be bloggers or have a harder time being authentic if they were.

    BTW Clay - From the “the world is getting smaller all the time department” my wife has read one of your wife’s books and enjoyed it.  Thanks for your ministry efforts and for stopping by here…wanna rent a pogo stick?  ;)

13. Clay Clarkson on September 18, 2005

    Oh, yikes! I’ve been exposed! I usually use a nom du web when I make comments on a blog (is that being inauthentic?). I learn best by interaction and dialog, but I don’t want to get a reputation for being the noisy guy on the square. Silly me…thought my name would be unknown here. Oh well, now I can be authentic.

    Your wife probably knows one of my wife’s published books on motherhood. However, we also self-publish several books as a ministry. That’s why I visited FoolsBox, and then CustomerEvangelists and Boyink.com from there. We have never marketed well, and now we are about to launch a new website, a couple of blogs, and some new products. Call it some mid-life re-training. I’ll be a regular visitor here grazing for wisdom. I’ll mostly just be listening.

    Thanks for the offer of the pogo stick, but we’re still looking for our own “pogo schtick.” And, no, it won’t be a “heart.” Since our audience is parents, how about a set of juggling clubs. That fits!

14. Michael Boyink (Author) on September 19, 2005

    Step right up folks, and witness the power of the blog…from credible to authentic in two blog comments!!

    ;)

    My apologies if I “blew your cover”...I tried to not give away too much.

    Good luck on your new marketing efforts - I’ll be watching! 

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