what about transparency?

There are all kinds of buzz words in social media and one of the most often buzzed about is transparency.

Transparency means all kinds of specific things, but in general, the simple definition is be honest.

As a small business owner, this is something you don't even make a conscious decision to do. Everyone knows that when a business misrepresents itself, promises something it can't deliver, uses bait and switch, or any other shady tactics then word gets out and business suffers. If customers can't trust you, they don't want to use you.

Here's a good general rule of thumb - what applies in the real world also applies online. The seeming anonymity of the online world is an illusion. Those who are less than honest are eventually found out and word gets out to your customers, often through social media.

So, those specific things I mentioned? Here are a few:

Be Yourself.Don't misrepresent the size, location, experience, or capabilities of your business or staff. Case in point, on the simple website, I use first person pronouns to identify my company. I don't say "we" because, at this point, simple is "I".

Review Honestly. Starting an account on a reviewing social media and then padding the page with fake reviews is not honest. Asking friends to write reviews for you is a gray area - are they truly objective customers? Inviting customers to review is ok, but using incentives or rewards to get them to review is shady.

Give Credit.If you use source material to write comments or blog posts, give credit where credit is due. Identify the writer and link the source.

As someone who helps small businesses market themselves online, transparency is my top priority. Ethically speaking, once my clients' social media is in place, aside form monitoring it, I don't interact with it at all. I'm a social media Joan Goodall, observing and recording.

Now, I'm going to go watch Kell On Earth, eat some popcorn and then floss. OK, maybe that is a little too much transparency.