Fake It To Make It, Or Fake It To Break It?
Are you the same person on Social Media as you are in real life?
Fake it to Make it
Everyone has a Social Media account. Be it Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, You Tube, Tumblr, Twitter, TikTok or any of the hundreds of other options available. The personas people adopt on their Social Media accounts can be different to reality. What is the problem you might ask? On dating sites do you put your worst habits for the world to see, or do you paint the best picture you can of yourself so you can find your ideal partner?
Faking it can start with cropping your profile photo, editing your looks so people see you differently, standing next to a Ferrari when you drive a Saxo, carrying a branded handbag when you use a carrier bag from Tescos, wearing your best jewelry, or borrowing someone shoes.
It can go to faking jobs that you might have wished you had, buying friends and followers, promoting goods and services for quick return and reward, changing your university to an Ivy League School or photoshopping celebrities into your pictures. Ultimately, who are you hurting? Everyone does it, right?
When you work for yourself, as a freelancer, you are building your own brand. Your personality becomes your brand. When you are the face of your company, or the face of the company you work for, in sales, marketing, networking, your brand is what people see first, and the temptation to make that brand as strong and appealing as possible must always be a pull for some people.
Influencers get paid a lot of money for “Promoting” the brands that they use everyday, and for companies to sponsor them. If you are seen using, wearing, owning certain brands, then your “Followers” will be doing the same, and that is only good for business. So people get paid for wearing an item of clothing once, for half a day, and have hundreds of photos taken in it, so that people associate the influencer with that dress, or that brand.
The pressures to be “On” all the time, projecting an image that works for you and your business can be huge. Is it easier to buy followers, clicks and visitors, fake it to make it……. Or is there an alternative option?
Fake it to break it
Being a “Gigger” in the Gig Community, working in various different jobs, for different companies, and advertising your skills to all current, future and potential employers your brand needs to show that you are clean living, organised, skilled, experienced, focused, and you would be an asset to any company that wants to employ you. And the better your brand, the more you can charge. The more connected you are, the more experience you have, the more employable you are in the Gig Community.
You get the interview for the dream job, you have the HR Department running due diligence checks on you, you need some references to back up your experience, this is the job that could make your career, and what would happen if the due diligence comes back with a very clear message….. This person is a fake.
Being real might not be sexy, it might not be exactly perfect, but it is a true reflection of you, and who you are. People will respect you for being real, you will not fall down on fake references and fake experience, you will highlight truth, honesty and transparency, and your brand will shine more brightly than it did when wearing that fake Rolex Watch and arriving in that rental car.
