Behind the Brand
I have alot of respect for Jason Keith, creator of Social Fresh and influencer in the social media space. While I’ve actually spoken to him in-person very few times, we often chat on Twitter and e-mail, and I would consider him an industry friend (a fellow graduate of Sarcasm University). When I recently ran across a post on his blog, it made me revisit a much talked-about topic over the years: transparency in brands. Perhaps transparency isn’t the right “phrase,” but rather the “Face Behind the Brand.”
Nothing new and profound here, by any means, but something that always seems to surface every once-in-a-while.
We here at IZEA have always been quite transparent when it comes to our Team Members engaging in conversation with our Community (and non-Community, for that matter). Anyone’s who’s been active in our Community for any length of time widely know myself (Community Manager), Carri Bright (Communications Lead), and Ted Murphy (Founder & CEO)–who tend to me most active in conversations–are part of the IZEA Team. And while none of us appear in any of the Twitter or Blog branding, our images do appear when a blog post is published, and most folks know when it comes to Twitter the voice is either Carri (@IZEALove and @Spontwts) or myself (all other IZEA Twitter and Facebook profiles).
Top Consumer Brands*
According to a study released in mid-2010, here are the top Consumer Brands using social media. You’ll note none of them feature the faces or names of the folks “behind the brand”; Zappos, however, does announce their Team Members via Twitter when they come on board for their customer service Twitter channel; CEO Tony Hsieh also appears on the main company Twitter profile.
Would you feel better connected with these brands if you knew who the face(s) behind the brand are?
Image: Courtesy of Penn Olson
Statistics: Ranked by Famecount.com
Your Thoughts
So what’s your take? Are you more comfortable knowing the actual person behind the company’s social media efforts? Or are you merely satisfied to just have a relationship with the brand itself? I’m curious to know what you think.
To view Jason Keith’s blog post, which inspired this one, click here. He posted a handful of responses to his question “Should brands publicly list their community managers on their social networking accounts? Why or why not?”
* study from 2010
