Importance of Transparency in Social Media

Here is a blog post about the virtue of transparency in marketing:

http://www.sproutcontent.com/blog/bid/105136/Transparency-is-the-Key-to-Good-Content-Marketing

It says that being honest about your product is the best way to market your product because there is nothing to cover up and the audience will happily trust our product. It has examples from Lays, Organic Valley and Patagonia.

Transparency is important to social media because there are so much information that it is hard to find trustworthy sources, especially in social media sites where a lot of people post fake information about themselves. Having transparency allows people to inspect the sources for authenticity. This is important for building trust. For example if a reviewer posts reviews about a product, there is no way to verify if the review is sincere. However, if the company selling the product posts about a product and it hosts tours and allows people to trust their product, then it is being transparent and there is a way to to verify their product. They post the information on social media and people will know the information.

Telling people answers truthfully earns the trust of customers and people will be more likely to buy your product and services because of it. Advertisers and mrketers should be transparent about their products and services so that they can evaluate their products with the most information possible. If your product is good, then there is nothing to hide. If you have something you think you need to hide, then you need to work on your 4P's of marketing. You should make a better product or set a better price. You can spin your product in a better so that people will be attracted to it, but there it is likely to be wrong for you to not be trasparent in your promotional activities online.

So, it is time to be transparent if you are not. It is time to be truthful and reveal the most about the things you are trying to promote online.