After you integrate social networking into your marketing, decide where to cultivate your identity, and coordinate online and offline aspects of your identity, it’s time to get down into the identity building trenches. The principal elements of your social network identity are your profile, your connections, your activity, and your purpose.
The first step is to create a profile, followed by connecting with other members of the social network to create your own networked community.
Profile. A typical social network profile comprises
- name and username - ideally the same across all your social networks and other sites (mine is peterkorchnak)
- photo of your likeness (avatar)
- facts about you – personal details, bio or other narratives, employment history, memberships, contact information, links, etc. depending on the network
- widgets/applications pulling data from other online locations to show your presence and activity elsewhere – for example, I use the WordPress and SlideShare applications on LinkedIn, and Blog/RSS, Google Reader, Twitter, and Delicious applications on Facebook
Profile is the part of your social network identity over which you have greatest control. You’re in charge of creating and updating it, you decide what goes in and out.
Your profile should be as dynamic as your other identity elements. As things change in your life, update your profile with relevant new information. Changes to your profile will then become a part of your social network activity.
The key to an effective online profile is to be as close to your real self as possible to avoid conflict between who you want others to think you are and who others actually think you are. The definition of identity points to your identity being a reflection of others’ perception of you. In a socially constructed reality, it doesn’t matter who you (your brand) say you are; it’s other people (your target audiences) whose perceptions shape your identity. Consider this then: I don’t play Wii much, but when the group of Wiithusiasts I once visited learned I didn’t have a Mii avatar, they collectively created one for me, just as each of theirs had been created. The resulting PeterK Mii looked different than what I’d have created by myself, but it reflected the group’s perception of my appearance. What would your profile on your social networks look like if your peers created it?
Connections (friends, followers, contacts, group/community members). Connections among people define social networks. Your connections are a central element of your social network identity.
- “We are judged by the company we keep.”
- “Birds of a feather flock together.”
- “Tell me who you hang out with and I’ll tell you who you are,”
In other words, whom you know shapes your social network identity. Notice I said “whom”, not “how many”. Whether you interpret the tendency to accumulate and flaunt the number of connections as cultural shallowness or high school-like popularity contest, social networks are about relationships, not numbers. It’s the quality not quantity of connections, indeed, the quality of relationships, that matters, especially from the social sustainability standpoint. Trust being the centerpiece of relationships, whom you know and trust is important, but who knows and trusts you is perhaps even more so.
As you build your social network, ask the following questions
- Who are – what is the identity of – your connections?
- How and why are you connected? What shared interest binds you together?
- What do your connections say to you and about you?
- What do your connections do in their social networks?
- What kind of community are you all a part of?
Who you say you are and who you’re connected to are the easier steps of cultivating a sustainable identity in online social networks; what you do and why are trickier and more demanding.
(To be continued and concluded.)
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Building a sustainable identity online, pt. 1
Building a sustainable identity online, pt. 3
Image credit: jason rust
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Great rundown on how to leverage social networks. Thanks for the details.