Audience or authenticity? Why building an audience strains your soul

By Mark Schaefer

We desperately want to be heard.

If you’re creating a brand, trying to make change in the world, or simply creating content on Snapchat, You. Just. Want. To. Be. Heard.

To be heard, you need an audience, and an audience rewards authenticity … but it can also take it away.

Let me explain what I mean …

Content creates us

At the recent SXSW festival, I attended a fascinating panel that featured a young writer named Diego Perez. As Yung Pueblo on Instagram, Diego drops tiny bits of wisdom that have made him a minor New Age guru:

Honestly, I don’t understand a lot of his deep thoughts … but I’m not his target audience and enough people love him to make him an Instagram star.

During his presentation, he explained his tangled career that involved coming to America as an immigrant, forays into philosophy and psychology, and eventually his success with self-help journalism.