Post Secret vs. Share Your Secret

Wow - talk about hitting you in your solar plexus.   Who could have imagined the power of a postcard with a profound individual truth.   That's exactly what you'll find, postcard after postcard, on the wildly popular website PostSecret.com.   

The caption on this one is "I'm afraid I'm responsible for my own loneliness"

PostSecret.com features postcard size images sent in anonymously with text that shares a secret.  Here's how the site describes it:

You are invited to anonymously contribute your secrets to PostSecret. Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.

The secrets range from funny to heart-wrenching. Here are some examples....

"I'm just not one of the cool kids"

"I'm afraid that I'm responsible for my own loneliness"

"My boyfriend is addicted to Internet porn.  He promises he'll stop, but he never does.  And every time I catch him at it, I love him a little less."

"When I dream about my wedding (years from now) the thing I get most excited about my dance with my dad."

Other posts range from funny admissions to thoughts of suicide.   

Some people have suggested that the "Share Your Secret" campaign for Secret Deodorant was an attempt to imitate the popularity of PostSecret.com.  I wrote recently about my views of why the "Share Your Secret" campaign doesn't work.  It's an important example of how dangerous it is to go off of surface information without understanding deeper motivations. 

Here's why I think PostSecret.com does work.   

1. They respect and protect anonymity.    A secret is just that - it's something you're often ashamed of.   A secret is incredibly powerful.  A secret hurts.   Sharing it can sometimes help to relieve some of that hurt.  But who you share it with, and how you share it are incredibly important.   PostSecret.com allows you to diminish some of the hurt and shame by sharing it, but by doing it anonymously, they show their respect for the secret and the person sharing it.
2. The format forces you to use images as well as words.   In his book How Customers Think - Gerald Zaltman talks about the power of tapping into customers' unconscious, where he claims 95% of their decisions are made.  He does this by using images.   He has customers bring in images to describe how they are feeling.  The results are pretty amazing.   Images and metaphors could be one of the most important techniques for uncovering deeper customer motivations.
3. It feels authentic.   I don't have absolute proof, but everything about the site makes it feel like this is the real deal.   Yeah, he promotes his book, but I couldn't find any advertising.  the only promotion is for a suicide hot-line. 

There was an email from a site visitor who I think summed up the main reason why the site is so powerful...

thank the people that send in their postcards so that others know they are not alone with their secrets.

Wow - another profound truth.  Sounds very similar to what I wrote about a profound truth about women.   

Before you make any judgments about whether PostSecret.com is a good thing or a bad thing, go check out the site for yourself.

Comments

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