I love this song from Brad Paisley – it says a lot about the power of Digital connectedness.
I work down at the Pizza Pit
And I drive an old Hyundai
I still live with my mom and dad
I’m 5 foot 3 and overweight
I’m a scifi fanatic
A mild asthmatic
And I’ve never been to second base
But there’s whole ‘nother me
That you need to see
Go checkout MySpace
‘Cause online I’m out in Hollywood
I’m 6 foot 5 and I look damn good
I drive a Maserati
I’m a black-belt in karate
And I love a good glass of wine
It turns girls on that I’m mysterious
I tell them I don’t want nothing serious
‘Cause even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I’m so much cooler online
So much cooler online.
Thanks to social media and the internet – we can create perceptions thanks to whatever persona, business or personal, we promote. If someone is really smart, they can support that persona – even if it isn’t true. Sooner or later, that persona becomes perception. Just look at what happened with the gurus I mentioned last week.
We all have a responsibility to avoid the lure of creating false personas and perceptions, to maintain our integrity, for our businesses and ourselves. Just some points to note:
- Stacking up positive comments on your product or yourself from friends and family (or paid freelancers) is not integrity.
- Promoting yourself as an expert where you have no skills is not integrity.
- Creating a false list of skills, customers, education, friends and employers is not integrity.
- Being someone you’re not may be fun, but when it impacts others it is not integrity.
Digital connectedness is the chance to show our true colors. When we take advantage of this opportunity to use it for false propaganda, we’re cheating more than our audiences.
We’re cheating ourselves – and our chance to shine in all of our reality.
Check back tomorrow and we’ll chat about the best approaches to show true colors.
Image courtesy of theOtherMattM
