Social media is becoming consumers’ ‘go-to’ channel for engaging with businesses, and, when they do, they want to feel like the conversations they’re having are authentic, transparent and…well…‘real’.

This is not a new trend - the popularity of social platform BeReal is, in part, due to this desire for more authentic experiences on social media. The platform offers users the opportunity to capture real, unfiltered moments at a specific time of day, which they can then share with friends. Its success has even sparked the creation of new tools by other popular platforms, like Instagram’s ‘Candid Stories’ and Meta’s ‘Roll Call’, both of which have similar functionality to BeReal.

This need for authenticity isn’t just reserved for friends and family - it’s expected of brands, too. People want to interact with businesses that are honest about what they stand for and that remain true to their ideals. So, it’s really important for brands to be seen as genuine and reliable on social media - faked authenticity just won’t cut it.

Brands committing to this approach should use social media to share both unique and ordinary moments - building relationships with consumers through genuine communication, rather than just trying to drive sales opportunities. However, it’s important to decide on how you’ll embrace this way of communicating, as there are some risks involved…

One example of this comes from a major mobile phone network, which was asked by one of its Twitter followers about password storage. The user wanted to know if it was possible for customer service representatives to see people’s passwords in their backend system. A friendly customer service rep replied with an in-depth explanation of how passwords were stored in their system, which created a major security issue for the company.

It was forced to change its approach to password security just three days later - a pretty costly mistake for a brand that was just trying to embrace a transparent and authentic, but ultimately misguided, approach to its social communications.

Authenticity & Transparency

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