Okay, so the first thing I thought of when that phrase popped in my head was the Cyndi Lauper song "True Colors." However, I didn't know how to quote a line from the song without infringing on copyright laws, so maybe just buy the song and start listening while you read. Otherwise it'll just be stuck in your head.
Chapter 17 in Share This: The social media handbook for pr professionals gives a section about being completely authentic. Wouldn't it be nice if every person you met was this way? As Philip Sheldrake says, "[i]n the simplest terms, it's impossible to fake it" (p. 150). He mentions, just as we have learned in our Intro to Public Relations class, eventually, the truth will come out. As everyone knows, it's much easier to clean up a smaller mess than a big one that has built up over an extended period of time.
In this chapter, he seemed to be putting more of the pressure on individuals rather than organizations. Saying an organization or business needs to be authentic is a no-brainer for anyone with PR training. Be truthful and face conflicts early on. Simple. But what happens when we as individuals are expected to do this as well? What if we don't completely agree with a strategy our company is taking? It all comes back to ethics.
We have ethics thrown at us constantly in PR classes, but we will be thanking our professors one day. If we, at the core of the message, are authentic in what we say, then it's easy to convey that authenticity thrown the entire PR campaign. This authenticity is defined by Sheldrake as "having the quality of an emotionally appropriate, significant purpose and responsible mode of human life" (p. 151). We're not just talking about sending a message anymore. Now, we have to think about those influenced or affected by the message.
What are your views on authenticity? Is it truly important to let your individual "true colors" show? Or are you just hired to do the work that's best for the company and nothing else?
Sheldrake, P. (2012). Real-time public relations. In S. Waddington (Ed.), Share this: The social media handbook for pr professionals (pp. 147-155). United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Authenticity is definitely something to appreciate. In a highly corporate world, it can often seem as if everything is kind of inauthentic, so if a company can succeed in being authentic--or even appearing authentic--that is definitely to its advantage, as the book says.
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