I recently joined Third Tribe Marketing. It’s like an exclusive forum for a bunch of people who are keen to embrace new business principles – principles originally espoused by marketing guru, Seth Godin. The new way to be in business is basically honest and transparent. He suggests that, by doing so, you will eventually be seen as a leader in your field and you will be “followed” by your Tribe (like-minded people).

But exactly how honest ought we be? Do we reveal everything about ourselves?

I recently built www.cavepictures.net for Cave Pictures – a 3D graphic design business which does architectural and mining company animations as well as computer modelling etc. This client, like myself, works mostly alone and from home. The front page of the site had a nice space set aside for a picture of the business premises, an address and phone number etc.. I told the client to go outside and take his best pic. He took a lovely, flattering picture of his new home which we put up on the website – with the street address.

A week went by. I had some further dealings with this client and we were both vaguely worried that the picture didn’t look professional enough. I work at home so I also have the same problem. We don’t have an office building or an entry foyer we can proudly display on our front pages – just our work. So we decided to just snap off a few nice pics. Just the client sitting at the computer, working with a smile. Everybody wants to see the guy they’re buying off, right? The picture looked good, so we took away the address and just put in a phone number and his name.

Again, some time passed and we both felt it just wasn’t right. It didn’t feel “authentic” enough.

I emailed my Third Tribe Associates, some of whom are big players in the marketing world (not my forte). Just how much can we say on Twitter and on our websites to potential new clients. They told me a bunch of interesting things:

1. Being boring is the greatest sin in marketing. Don’t be boring. Probably the biggest mistake you could make is to try [to come over as] some corporate drone.

and

2. By being true to yourself, the clients that don’t like you don’t “knock” [on your business door]. That is a great thing in my book. Those that do like you will knock and probably more loudly. And working with them should be more enjoyable.

and

3. I actually fired all my clients years ago because I didn’t like working for people that I didn’t connect with. These were clients I built up by being ‘normal’ and ‘professional’. Those are things I’m usually not so I attracted people I generally didn’t like.

Rob eventually found a picture of himself having a great time while out Rallying. It’s a passion of his. He had the typical Rally Driver “Thumbs Up” and looked very happy in his helmet and rally gear. He uploaded it to the site and suddenly, the authenticity was apparent. Here is a guy who does 3D drawings and animations who also goes rallying for a bobby. The picture just clicked. The site had a real person behind it.

So – I think my business advisors of the Third Tribe are right. Don’t be afraid to show something of yourself to potential clients. They are going to find out how you are anyway, so why not be a little less guarded and give them some idea of the person who they will be dealing with? People do business with other people. Perhaps we should be mindful of that.