Authenticity for businesses and entrepreneurs is crucial in today’s “Social Media” economy. The companies who have opted for being authentic, and in the process, transparent, are seeing their customers become extremely engaged. This has a direct effect on their bottom lines too.
A good example of this is my friend Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com. Pat has built a business from being very transparent with his fans. So transparent, in fact, that every month he publicly publishes his income reports on his blog for the world to see! Pat is a great guy and it was great seeing him featured in this Forbes story along with 9 other great leaders.
There are companies, like 3M, that have made transparency a big part of their culture, as demonstrated by their commitment to Scotch tape. For others, it isn’t as easy. Transparency is something many leaders shy away from; the repercussions of people finding out their “secrets” could be detrimental to their companies.
via 10 Leaders Who Aren’t Afraid to Be Transparent – Forbes.
Besides the ones listed in the article above, there are other notable companies being transparent too. Marcus Sheridan, from The Sales Lion, recently posted how McDonald’s was being extremely transparent with their customers, going as far as opening their social media channels for direct questions from consumers and posting video responses of those questions, even if the questions we’re critical of McDonald’s. How’s that for transparent?
How about you? How transparent are you with your customers? Leave us a comment and let us know how you do it or any other examples of companies who are doing it right.
