time to bring their own voice back into the fold?

I was talking about authenticity of a brand, of a company’s voice with some friends last night, discussing how today, anything less and you will be outed, barred and worst of all – a social media outcast at one sniff of inauthentic writer.

Which made us think aboutall those “newsletters” that companies put out – digitally or physical, most companies have one in belief that this is what keeps them in contact with their customers. Yet, in reality, most of the time these are outsourced to a PR company or similar. If someone isn’t in your business, and has no contact with your customers…how is this an authentic voice? (I realise there may be fantastic exceptions) In a quick straw poll we realised that we all ignore these publications as having no meaningful content. We are certainly not engaged with them or as a consequence the brand.

Parallel to this is the increasing need for companies to participate in dialogue with their customers, often facilitated through blogs, active forums, facebook and twitter accounts. To do this well organisations need to be generating and using a lot more, current, content.

So the logical next question is – will companies start to bring their own voice back into their fold? Will they bring in their newsletters, wesbites and magazines not only to speak with a more authentic voice, but because it is a far more efficient use of resources?

This will vary with organisational type and their customer profiles, for example – a utility may still most effectively use an insert with a bill (for now), but what about a high-end investment firm?

I am looking forward to seeing what happens as more companies find their own voice again – and in doing so, start a real conversation with their customers.

(13 May, 2009)