Are “encouraged” social media corporate post the new “fake authenticity hack”?

“Authenticity is the key to success in business. For companies and leaders”

I see a meme or a reminder at least daily on LinkedIn and other social media. Yet it seems that a lot of companies have not yet mastered what authenticity really is.

The first interpretation usually is to link the company to values that the world cares about. Stories of CEO sacrifice profits thou, when the values are at risk are rare.

The next step then is to show how the company supports those causes internally or in the community. How authentic they are with their engagement, gender equality and inclusion programs, charity efforts, or local politics, and have employees talk about it.

This is where, for me, the line gets blurry. Everyone loves engaged employees, linking and posting on social media about their #bestplacetowork. It adds credibility to what the corporate m social media team has out there. But what if those employees are not there? Tools like LinkedIn elevate can now help to create them, encouraging people to share company or market posts.

At first glance, this is a win win. Employees get more visibility for their own social media profiles, they get to share and read interesting non company related articles, and the company gets an additional boost.

My observations thou aren’t so rosy. Policies including the minimum amount of times the company needs to be referred, actively skew the employees choices. The company gains an army of additional social media “people” and hundreds of thousands of additional organic reach for free. Employees pushed to post messages about how everything is great, even thou they live a different reality can grow disengaged, and other groups can start to feel the effect of “fake” social media exposure seen in teens.

So I ask again, is asking employees to do positive PR for free, at least twice a week, a way to be or to fake authenticity?