One of the client projects I’m working on right now is, among other things, focused on establishing transparency. The client is in a field known for disreputable people, and they want it to be clear from their branding and their website that they’re different. That you can trust them. That’s a great goal to have, and it’s the essence of proper branding. But it’s hard to measure.
I’ve been working through what that means for a while now. If it’s not a measurable goal, how do you track it?
I was chatting with a colleague about content strategy recently, and somebody said that it’s not about what we say — it’s what we do.
Transparency, like so many other things online, is hard to demonstrate without action. Our actions are the determiner of our values.
One of my goals this year is to be more transparent about what I’m working on and what I’m doing. To begin with, I’ll update my Now page more. I haven’t updated it in a year. That’s next on my todo list today.
But it also means sharing more of what I learn with my colleagues, and becoming a more active part of the community. For me, it means a return to more regular blogging.
If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that social media isn’t working. It’s an empty vacuum. If we want to contribute — if we want to be visible — we need to own the space we’re publishing in. We need to learn together.
The most transparent, honest thing we could admit to is this: none of us know anything. But we’re always learning. As Samuel L. Jackson says, “I’m trying, Ringo. I’m trying real hard.”And that’s all any of us can do.