It cannot be stressed enough that "authentic" in itself is not an advantage. It is possible - and it is not just politicians who show us this every day - to come across as very authentic and at the same time very unpleasant or even repulsive. But this is also very much in the eye and ear of the observer or the person you are talking to. "What is an owl to one is a nightingale to another," is what they say in my homeland of northern Germany (quoting Fritz Reuter). In other words: every brand ambassador gets the audience - or perhaps better said, the environment - that they deserve, and it is not always primarily about attracting as many people as possible, but rather about taking a clear position.
This also means that more than ever, companies of all sizes and in all industries need a very clear brand positioning. This always requires courage. Because if you position yourself clearly for something, you are also excluding those and things that do not fit in. At first glance, attracting everyone and trying to please as many people as possible is therefore safer and easier. At second glance, it is a sure path to irrelevance. A company that has no brand concept for itself in relation to its environment, reference groups and, above all, the benefits it offers them, is sinking faster than ever into the arbitrariness of huge amounts of data and the possibilities for comparing offers.
The brand strategy must always come before the brand ambassador linkedin data strategy. Only when the company has clearly positioned itself can individuals also use this to support what it stands for. I think it is a very gratifying realization in these digital times that this is often difficult to achieve without a value orientation and that what is made up or faked is usually quickly exposed.
It would of course be naive to assume that brand ambassadors would improve the world simply by their existence or that brands would suddenly mutate into world improvement organizations. Daily reporting tells us otherwise, and anyone who sometimes becomes discouraged in these times cannot be blamed.
A village with 150 people
However, we must not forget - and this is precisely where Facebook is relying with its current change - that we are all simply overwhelmed by the excess of information. Our consciousness is still designed to process news from a community of around 150 people. If we receive more information (including disaster reports), we convert it to that group size. The world seems correspondingly catastrophic when we receive a lot of such news.
Zuckerberg's status report states: “The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being. We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long-term measures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos — even if they're entertaining or informative — may not be as good.”