Reflections about online personas

It's also a good idea to read Andy Beal's useful free beginners' guide to monitoring and managing online (persona or brand) presence:

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2006/03/online-reputation-monitoring-beginners.html 

I found this interesting quote from Berlin Fang in the China Daily which seems up the persona problem neatly:

'Our virtual image is not always, if ever, a mirror image of who we actually are offline. Most of us now have a "split personality" problem between our virtual selves and our real selves. But such a differentiation existed even before the Internet.'

Between public and home life; social and work life; authors and their characters - the split personality has always been there.

Mastercard research on online personas

I found this research from Mastercard as reported in Business Wire to be illuminating about online persona types - to quote:

'Though consumers are increasingly savvy in managing their online identity, the consumer research reveals there is a clear hierarchy in the kind of information they are willing to share, and there are certain types of organizations they trust most with their data. Some of the key findings about each online persona group include:

• “Open Sharers”: Twenty-one percent of online consumers fall into this category, which tends to skew more male (60 percent). Open Sharers are the most highly digital group of the five and tend to lead less risk-averse online activities. Half of them are online more than 10 times per day and when they share their personal information, they expect deals, access and offers in return.
• “Simply Interactors”: This persona (which accounts for 21 percent of online consumers) includes some of the most dedicated social networkers, yet they are not particularly tech-savvy consumers. When it comes to online shopping, a majority (80 percent) will research products online, but 63 percent still prefer to shop in person. Though they are aware of targeted marketing, they don’t see their data as valuable and thus don’t express significant concern about it.
• “Solely Shoppers”: This online personality is characterized by their reliance on the Internet for savvy shopping research and purchases. Making up 21 percent of all consumers online, the majority (90 percent) of these Internet users researches products online before buying and half use their mobile phone to price check in-store in order to get the best deals. Surprisingly, they have low awareness of target marketing – as only 37 percent know that social media sites use their personal data to inform ads.
• “Passive Users”: As the name suggests, this group’s members are not fully convinced of the Internet’s value and therefore tend to spend the least amount of time online of all the personas. Accounting for 20 percent of all online consumers, Passive Users are less frequent on social networks (only 48 percent) and not heavy online shoppers. Compared to other personas, they are more likely to shop from their mobile device and more willing to trade their data for something in return.
• “Proactive Protectors”: Comprising 17 percent of all online consumers, the Proactive Protectors are highly aware of targeted marketing – in fact 82 percent are knowledgeable that marketers can target them based on their search and browsing history. They are unlikely to use social networks and the most guarded with their privacy settings of all the personas – taking steps to protect and control their digital footprint'

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131002005755/en/What%E2%80%99s-Digital-DNA-MasterCard-Study

Managing online personas

The management of an online persona with all its different ramifications requires extreme dexterity. For those who care about their career it can be a real headache and hiding doesn't help either. In this case low profile can amount to no profile.

I like this thought provoking article by Rachel Balik:

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/way-to-work/IV-Managing-Your-Online-Persona.html

also this collection about teachers stzruggling to separate professional and private lives online:

 http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Americas/May-June-08/Teachers-Struggle-to-Separate-Private-and-Professional-Lives-Online.html

For students I like the following online sequence of activities to check out 'Naming in a Digital world: Creating a Safe Persona on the Internet. First a summary then the source:

'OVERVIEW

Naming takes on new meanings in digital settings—as students build personas through e-mail addresses, screen names, and online profiles, they can be unaware of the ways that others may read the information they share. Students begin this lesson by researching and discussing their own names. They investigate the role that situation and audience play in how names, such as nicknames or full names, are used. Next, they determine which of their names would be appropriate in a variety of different situations and then apply that idea to email, deciding which email addresses would be appropriate for each situation. Students use an online game to see what they can tell about another person from looking at their email address and then review online safety information. Finally, students choose a specific name that they would (or do) use to represent themselves online and create a profile for this online persona.'

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/naming-digital-world-creating-843.html