Transparency can be an effective tool for anyone, regardless of whether we’re talking about social media or not. It doesn’t matter if you’re Alex Rodriguez, explaining exactly when and how you did steroids, or you’re a blogger who shares his/her contact information; being transparent adds credibility and creates trust.

This week, rather than looking at an individual example such as Andrew Warner, let’s look at how transparency helps thousands of bloggers, marketers and social media influencers on Twitter.

Social Media Tactics discusses various ways social and new media users build relationships and add value to their audience. Each week, we will look at one social media influencer that has managed to use web marketing successfully. In Social Media Tactics, we’ll show you some of the best ways to enhance your own brand and social media presence while demonstrating how some smart users employ social media tactics.

The Social Media Tactics series can be found here.

• Being Transparent Pt. 1: Andrew Warner

First, let’s look at images to illustrate the importance of transparency. If you look at the top 100 listed Twitter users on Wefollow for #socialmedia, #entrepreneur, #blogger and #marketing, over 3/4 of them have a clear picture of their face as their user photo. Of the rest, most are brand logos. Are they at the top solely because they have their picture up there? Of course not. But having your picture as your avatar shows others that you’re not afraid to share who you are.

Nearly all of those Twitter accounts are also under one person’s name and have one main Twitter user account. The same is also true for big “corporate” accounts, such as @Starbucks and @ComcastCares. Interesting, but what’s the point?

Transparency is Very Important on Twitter

Maybe you’re a blogger with 50 followers, or maybe you’re an entrepreneur with 1,500 followers. Either way, if you’re looking to get extra recognition, or build relationships with your social media community, transparency helps to set you apart from the rest of the Twitterverse.

As time goes on, the Signal:Noise issue gets worse and worse on Twitter and in social media. Transparency (and honesty) is one way to combat the problem. By increasing your transparency on Twitter, it’s an easy way to increase followers, clickthroughs and retweets. All Twitter users prefer to interact with someone real. Transparency (what are you actually doing; where do you live; what kind of hobbies do you have) also creates more valid connections with your social network. For instance, a bio that says “I am Ryan – that should be enough” is simply not enough.

So how does transparency drive results?

• You won’t be ignored as easily.I ignore all shameless self-promoters who add me. If all you do is talk about your business and tweet about press releases, I won’t be listening. Same goes for if you don’t have an image. If you’re closed off to me, I won’t open up to you.
• You’ll make long-lasting connections.I pride myself on the connections I’ve made through Twitter. I got in touch with most of them due to reasons unrelated to my work, but have built important connections that transcends the Signal:Noise barrier.
• It might just help you someday.Anecdote: a little over a week ago, I attended Penny Arcade Expo (#PAX). I needed to get a hold of producer for the game Section 8. Thankfully, one of my Twitter friends is actually a web developer who knew the right guy and put me back in touch. If I’d never talked about my work at Xbox on Twitter, I never would have gotten in touch with the right guy in time.
• People can find you.Anyone searching for keywords on Twitter can more easily find you and interact with you if you’re actually talking about yourself (and using hashtags). If you’re looking to build your network, connect with people who are interested in the things you like, not just the work you do.

No, you don’t have to post everything that has ever happened to you on Twitter. Then you’re just adding noise. But if you share relevant information about yourself and your interests, it only improves your connections and engagement.

Jaremy Rich writes a technology, marketing and gaming blog called Techshots, and he tries to be very transparent on Twitter.