The problems with transparency

There are those that say that consumers are better served when companies are transparent. As a result, "transparency" has become a rallying cry for consumer watchdogs and boardroom activists and the famed "social media experts." (My view: if you call yourself a "social media expert," you probably aren't. My other view: if you work the acronym "SEO" into your content, I probably won't read it. But I digress.)

Years ago, I was talking with two different people at a then-competitor of my then-employer. I asked them both why they didn't print a customer list on their company's web page. One person believed that this should happen. The other disagreed, saying that the only people who would pay attention to such a list would be competitors such as myself.

I was reminded of this when I read something that Jason Alba recently wrote about company pages on LinkedIn:

The advocates are suggesting that people will come to your Company page, learn about your company, and then buy something (or something like that).

Everyone else teaches LinkedIn users how to use Companies to do competitive intelligence research, figure out how to network into a company, sell something to that company, or even steal employees from that company (recruiters would do this).

Go here to read Alba's advice about company pages (although you can probably guess what he advises).