“Transparency” spells authenticity. What do you represent? Does the way you present yourself online represent you and your business?

Are people able to see the real you or are you hiding behinds layers of façade that projects an entirely different image to the online world?

I’m sure you get the idea of what we mean by transparency in blogging.

A prime example in recent times is the transitioning of SEOmoz to Moz. Why did they change the name?

Here’s what Rand Fishkin, the CEO and founder of SEOMoz had to say in his goodbye to SEOMoz post:

“Calling ourselves “SEO”Moz is no longer transparent and authentic. With products like Fresh Web Explorer, FollowerWonk, GetListed, and the beta of Moz Analytics (alongside the vast array of non-SEO content we publish), we’re no longer purely an SEO software company. Pretending otherwise is disingenuous, and that violates our core values.”

You may be blogging to make money or to build an online presence. Whatever the reason, your core values have to be the priority at all times. It is these values that will tell people WHAT you are and your ethics will reflect in the way others perceive your business.

How Do You Achieve Transparency In Blogging?

As a blogger I can say what my view is and people can still read me and I am in essence offloading to them the responsibility to make that calculation. ~ Mary Hodder via kcnn.org

There’s nothing wrong in wanting to earn money or fame through blogging. Aren’t we all seeking similar results online?  You can make money and build an online presence too.  But what matters is how you go about achieving what you set out to.

The best way to increase your audience and build trust in the blogging community is by being completely transparent.

What Is Transparency?

Transparency means you and your doings are visible to everyone online – and you’re not trying to hide anything from others.  For instance, transparency could mean that your visitors and readers who come into contact with your blog are made aware of and have access to your reason for blogging, your thoughts, concerns and ideas.  The purpose of transparency is to enable others to see and understand you and your business.

If yours is a company blog and you’re the HR manager of your company, blogging under your own name and title, and sharing your honest thoughts with your visitors would make your blog transparent. On the other hand, if you were to post as a customer, making it look as if it’s positive customer feedback that would not be transparent at all.  In fact, it amounts to deception. You’re intentionally deceiving your readers.

Honesty Is All It Takes To Be A Transparent Blogger

Blogging involves dialogue and transparency is a dominant feature of blogging. An interesting aspect of blogging is that the starting point is the individual. It’s the blogger that people associate with, whether it’s a company blog or an online business blog.  People viewing the pages on a blog enter into a passive form of communication and sharing.

An important function of a blog is that it serves as the representation of the business on the web.

Many bloggers take the route of projecting themselves in a positive light, even if it means hiding things or communicating wrong.  But that takes away from the authenticity of the blog.

How Transparent Should Bloggers Be?

One of the most important questions that people ask is about the competition. Wouldn’t they be giving away their secrets to their competition by being transparent?  It’s obvious that the competition will gain an edge from this.

Okay, here I have to clarify that being transparent doesn’t mean giving away trade secrets.  That would be foolish and not a smart business decision at all.

While honesty is very important, it means being honest about what you do and not how you do it.

For example, you’re an affiliate marketer. You have a host of Clickbank product reviews on your site.  Are your reviews transparent or not? How much truth is there in those reviews?  Posting great reviews just because you want people to buy using your link is wrong.

Posting balanced reviews that discuss both the positive and negative aspects of the products are helpful to your readers. You’re letting them decide whether they want the product or not.  While this may lead to fewer sales initially, you’ll be in business for the long-term, because people will begin trusting you and your reviews hold value.

On the other hand, if you had continued writing false reviews, how long do you think it will be before people understand what you’re trying to do?  You can say goodbye to any repeat visitors.

Through offering balanced reviews that actually help people, you’re being open and transparent which will encourage people to come back.  Once people know they can trust you, there’s a better chance of them buying from you later.

What if you decide to bring an excellent product to them in the future?  Can you imagine how this trust factor is going to help make sales?

You should be as transparent as possible and make your visitors your priority. People find honesty refreshing in the online market place where every second person is trying to misguide them.

You can be transparent with how you run your blog and how you run your business through your blog, while being a smart business person and not letting out any trade secrets.

Steps To Transparent Blogging

When people know you’re being honest, they’ll even want to link back to your posts and tell others about you. This will lead to increased traffic and you’ll earn a good name in the blogging community.

Be Honest About The Products/Services You’re Promoting.

While most of us probably use them as some kind of guide when making an online purchase decision, there are already plenty of reasons no to trust online product reviews: the reviewer may have some agenda, the reviewer may be an idiot, etc. And now some fascinating research gives a new and somewhat unexpected reason to distrust anonymous reviews: a certain number of them come from people who have probably never bought the product they are writing about. ~ Phil Bowermaster via transparencyrevolution.com

If you’re promoting a product or service, whether as an affiliate or an owner, try to do justice to your visitors. Give them a clear picture of what you’re promoting or selling.  Even if you don’t want to talk about the negative points, at least don’t turn them positive and mislead your visitors. If someone asks a question about the product, answer it as genuinely as possible, giving them a clear picture.

Be Open With Your Identity.

Who are you? Is it a personal blog or are you representing your company? Are you blogging under your own name?

Be open about your identity.  Don’t think that disclosing your relationship to your company is not required. It’s very much needed.  Show people the face of the blogger along with the logo of the company.

This instills trust as opposed to blogging as “anonymous” or “admin.” Okay, you’re the admin, but who’s the admin?  People don’t trust a faceless and nameless entity.

Provide Authentic Information.

No point in filling pages of text if the information is not authentic. If you’re using someone’s text that your readers can benefit from, give them credit where it’s due. Don’t make it seem like you’re the one who’s conveying that message.

Don’t post anything that you’re unsure of. If you don’t know something, admit that you’re not sure of it. People will appreciate honesty more than assumptions.

Admit To Mistakes.

If you’ve made a mistake in an earlier statement or post, admit to it. This is the key element of transparency.  Don’t try to cover anything as it won’t be long before people find out.  When that happens, it won’t take much to lose all the goodwill you would have built over the years.

If you’ve made a mistake in communicating something to them, don’t go back and delete that post. You can always edit that post and add the correction, apologizing to the readers for the mistake.

Remember, it takes time to gain trust, but it only takes one mistake to lose it all.

FTC and Transparency In Blogging

Now suppose you learn that the person works for the company that sells the product – or has been paid by the company to tout the product. Would you want to know that when you’re evaluating the endorser’s glowing recommendation? You bet. That common-sense premise is at the heart of the revised Endorsement Guides issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency. ~ Business.ftc.gov

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has in place several rules for digital marketing. It’s now a legal requirement that you follow every single rule.  Transparency involves going through the list of do’s and don’ts and following them without exception.  Even if you haven’t been following the FTC rules, do it now and make the necessary changes to achieve transparency.

Reap The Rewards Of Transparency in Blogging

Achieving transparency is simple. All it takes is honesty and being genuine. It takes a change in mindset to that of helping readers rather than trying to mislead them.

You can reap the benefits of increased trust and credibility, and an increase in readership as you continue blogging.