Transparency isn’t about creating trust it’s about creating better content.

  By Tac Anderson | May 6, 2009 - 12:55 pm | Biz

Transparency isn’t about creating trust it’s about creating better content.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the issue of transparency. Partly because I’m reading Shel Holtz great book, Tactical Transparency. This is a very *meaty* book. It’s taking me a while to read because I end up stopping every few pages to chew on the ramifications of what I just read.But today I had a thought about transparency that put things in a different light.

What if transparency isn’t about creating trust it’s about creating better content?

Transparency does not create trust. It just doesn’t. *Unless* you are trustworthy.

A well polished, media trained executive, speaking to his talking points at a press conference makes horrible content. A mumbling engineer speaking into his shoes, but passionately, about how and why he created their new product makes for much better content.

Apple is probably the most controlling, closed consumer tech companies out there. They can rip off the Beatles and sue bloggers and no one says a word. Why? Apple products make for great content. Steve Jobs keynotes make for great content.

Twitter has continued to grow despite starting off with one of the the worst Web user experience since the 1990′s. Granted it’s better now but it’s still not *great*. Why do we put up with it? Because the possibilities of this new category, microblogging, that they created makes for great content. The conversations we have there make for great content.

Now before the transparency evangelist jump all over me, I still believe that transparency is an important factor of trust but if it doesn’t make for great content, no one will care. Don’t believe me? Let me ask you one question? How many Fortune 1,000 company blogs do you read?

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About Tac Anderson

Social media anthropologist. Communications strategist. Business model junkie. Chief blogger here at New Comm Biz.
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  • http://michealfoley.com foleymo

    I totally agree with you about Twitter’s horrible user experience on the Web. I don’t know one single power Twit who uses Twitter’s Web site as their main experience. Do you think Twitter Web experience will ever become more TweetDeck-like? Will they even try?

  • http://michealfoley.com foleymo

    I totally agree with you about Twitter’s horrible user experience on the Web. I don’t know one single power Twit who uses Twitter’s Web site as their main experience. Do you think Twitter Web experience will ever become more TweetDeck-like? Will they even try?

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com Tac

    @foleymo I personally doubt Twitter will change their look much. I think there strategy is to rely on developers to add the extra stuff.

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com Tac

    @foleymo I personally doubt Twitter will change their look much. I think there strategy is to rely on developers to add the extra stuff.

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