Be True to Yourself: Addressing Your Customer Audience Online and Off

A strange thing for me occurred this past week. The occasion was reading a Scripture passage at an opening prayer service for religious education students at my church. An acquaintance of mine said to me later, “Really? Who do you think you’re fooling”?  I was a little confused and had to ask what she meant. Apparently, the way I act or speak at the ambo is much different from how I act or speak outside of church.  I would have to agree on that point, but I don’t think I’m fooling anyone, at all.

It’s more about knowing the situation and the people around me, more than acting out of character. I’m the same person online as I am offline or off the ambo. However, I’m not going to act as exuberantly or as anxiously in some situations (reading at church), as I do when I’m watching an Eagles’ football game. Church doesn’t inspire the same heartache and heartburn as my Philadelphia sports teams do.

Which got me to thinking. Do we really represent our true selves in our social media and brand presence?  If our online customers met us offline, would they be surprised?

I still believe, as I’ve mentioned before on this blog, that you have to know your customer audience. You must know their likes and dislikes, their interests, and where they hang out online. Often, they vary in age, gender, and other demographics, across multiple social media platforms and respond differently on each, as well.  What works as a post on Facebook may not translate as well on Twitter or LinkedIn. However, that doesn’t mean you make up completely different messages contradictory to your business’ message for each.  You share differently, depending on where you are and with whom you are speaking, yet your “voice” and message should remain the same.

Here I can italicize or bold for emphasis and I can be as long-winded as I choose.  Those options aren’t available on all platforms and post lengths vary.  Twitter is a standard 140 characters or less. Facebook gives more space, but too much wordiness looses readers’ attention, too. I adjust my posts according to the medium.

I tend to use Twitter for cross-information sharing and networking, where as I use Facebook more to develop those relationships.  I’m more business/friendly on Twitter and more friendly/business on Facebook. Same message, just different emphasis, depending on where I am online and with whom.

Does that make me two-faced or fake? Do I think I’m fooling anyone? I don’t think so. I simply have different relationships.  For example, my LinkedIn peers and connections won’t particularly care one way or the other that I spilled coffee down the front of my shirt this morning while typing this and trying to sip at the same time. They would care more, if I explained how the coffee industry influences social media strategy. But, my Facebook connections will laugh and poke fun about me wasting a perfectly good swig of coffee on a blog post.

Being true to yourself and your online presence is a matter of knowing who you are, what you believe in, and the people you associate with. It doesn’t make you untrue to yourself to respond differently to others.  It makes you responsive and present with those in your social circles. Those are what being social in social media is all about.

Be Well. Be Present. Be Social.

~Theresa

Related articles

• 8 Essential Elements of Your Personal Brand (collegefeed.com)
• Adam Grant: Why Some People Have No Boundaries Online (huffingtonpost.com)
• So, my business is online…of course it will be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram too. (socialmumma.wordpress.com)
• May your life someday be as awesome as you pretend it is on Facebook (csmt13.wordpress.com)