In terms of your online voice, an interesting question.

Following another meeting with the guys at digital Agency Yucca recently, we discussed this poser amongst other things. And it can be a minefield, of course.

If – like Yucca – you’re a young operation, the question of what tone of voice to have online can be tricky.

The Yucca example is a good one: they have maintained an authentic voice online, via their blog and twitter feeds.

However, authenticity does, of course, have its own value, as the Yucca management team has discovered. Whilst there is a time and place for corporate language, it all comes down to the requirements of the target audience, doesn’t it?

Authenticity is a scarce commodity these days: just look at the anodyne corporate blogs out there, the hollow twitter feeds being delivered by PRs for clients, the dry and brittle blogs which are being updated weekly. Nothing authentic, nothing inspiring.

Nothing to make one think, get creative, be informed, educated, entertained.

Basically, nothing to make the reader stay.

Checking out the Yucca blog, there is a real slice of life there: the Christmas party, for example, the building of a snowman: it gives a robust attempt at insight into life in the Agency, which brings us the audience closer to the team and how they interact in real-time.

There’s alot of salesy-based internal Agency news on there too which has no place on what should be a thought-leadership-focused blog, but hey, nobody’s perfect.

It’s moving in the right direction.

It’s also been a pleasure giving Richie Jones and Ben Martin, founding Directors at Yucca, insights into effective social media engagement during a series of informal meetings, as they entered the social media foray in late 2009, followed eventually in 2011 with the official launch of their own social media services – and even the ongoing commitment to hire a full-time Social Media Manager for their client base.

Shows they see the value in social media engagement, too, when they first asked for my advice and inputs to get them on the social media road in central Bristol back in late 2009.

Not leaders, but at least they are a digital agency in Bristol trying to engage with social media for their clients’ benefit.

And by trying to maintain an authentic voice online, they should find themselves at least being considered for a few social media-based pitches alongside their core service offers of web design, PPC, affiliate marketing and SEO, too.

So, the next time you feel pulled between using an authentic online voice and going ‘corporate’ to try and write what you think you should…my advice is simple. Authenticity rules, every time. Bravo.

Attitude. Insight. Expertise. Passion. Authenticity. When these things are lost, what hope is there for the creative industries?