Transparency is what I teach my blogging students. The best way to build brand as a blogger is to be authentic, conversational, honest, and consistent.

Disclose who you are. Ask for what you need. Give more than you take. Get your agenda right out there.

Markets may be conversations but without building true relationships and investing in a community openly, honestly, and transparently, conversations will not mature into anything real, both durable and connected.

Abraham Lincoln was right, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” Why fool anyone at all in the first place?

I don’t believe the risk-benefit analysis of marketing, PR, and public affairs black ops is ever worth it.