Social media is like an ice cream shop of personalities.
And just like Baskin Robbins serves 31 flavours, there usually are endless sub-flavours with different sprinkles and mouth feels but generally group up into main camps, for frozen treats, you can have ice cream, gelato, sorbet or frozen yogurt.
'Tis true with social media as well - typically when I surf a person's blog, Facebook page and Twitter profile, I make judgments, like most of us, in a span of less than 3 seconds. Most of the time, these are almost sub-conscious attributions I'm making but when I really think about it, these people collect in 4 different camps of social media personalities segmented in my brain as I've described below - the Cotton Candy type , The Librarian type, The Guitar type and The Treasure Chest type.
It may be shallow, but in a world of finite time and unlimited digital directions, finding effective shorthands to navigate the social web is almost essential. Like ice cream, we all have our faves - I love Italian gelato and chocolate chip, meanwhile, I have tough time wondering why anybody would love Tiger Tail or Neapolitan, but strangely enough they do.
So here are the key traits for our 4 social media personality camps (bias is included):
I) Cotton Candy Social Media personalities - uni-dimensional, style>substance
Personality - typically narcissistic, anti-everything except themselves and their cliques, spontaneous, of the moment
Ultimate Goal - to be noticed, talked about...for practically any reason
- a high number of "!!!" or ":)))" and "lol" in tweets
- messages that are intended for one person going out to everybody
- twitpics of person doing stuff in A-listing places or overly-personal situations
Blog
- short, short posts - usually one liners with some type of arresting picture
- lifestreaming - no holds barred
- bearing all - shallow introspective thoughts that masquerade as art or insight
- the costumed or over-the-top profile photo/avatar
- over 500 friends and 500 photos for sometimes reasons unexplained
- long list of bands, books or quotes in profile that nobody has ever heard or would want to repeat
Personality - arrogant, pseudo-authoritative, elitist, boring except to their audience
Ultimate Goal - to be recognized for their smarts and ideas
- self promotional tweets of rank, status on lists, upcoming conferences, awards
- links to their content on their own blog or those mentioned by others
- only retweet A-lister people with big followings, books or positional status
Blog
- long, long posts - usually 1,000+ words, frequently drifting in and out of main theme
- opinionated with "full kitchen sink" arguments for one "enlightened" point of view with impeccable long form grammar
- devoid of personality - very limited "letting their hair down" and sharing personally revealing insight
- usually an air-brushed photo of them in front of desk, on-stage, at a book signing or shaking a pope/president's hand
- very few friends and infrequent posting ('cause heck this is Facebook, no one is smart there)
- many, many cross-posted blog posts from a social media API - lazy, broadcasty, Facebooking
Personality - hopelessly brilliant, artistic, many interests, shared personal and social voice
Ultimate Goal - to connect to like minds, to create/design new stuff, on a noble-minded mission, ideas
- thought provoking 140 character quote or insight with links
- novel Twitter background that could be replicated into a poster
- good looking content from under-the-radar places with a personal charm and tone of voice
Blog
- beautiful looking, design-friendly content
- well-considered posts, mainly original but with credits to others
- zinger headlines in a relatively consistent look, feel and tone of voice
- use Facebook for more personal insight and what's going on
- well-stocked photo wall, Slideshare and obscure social network links
- interesting multi-dimensional lives - food, art, music, culture, travel - not related to profession
Personality - engaged with culture, exciting and excitable, big span of interests, intellectually curious, see the forest through the trees
Ultimate Goal - to turn information into insight, to discover interesting new stuff, to build original content
- a high percentage of retweeted content with links and high number of lists
- asks as many questions as they do answers
- show a balance between insight from social media, traditional media and the real world
Blog
- think what people think, but write what nobody has written before - in a word, original
- heavily researched, investigated and thought about - not just personal opinion stuff
- longevity of impact - content transcends "flavour of the day", creates reader impact
- many likes, interests and groups/pages joined
- modulate tone of voice for Facebook audience - let personal dimension show
- shine light on great content from other "treasure chest" friends "the guild society of social media" - highlight their substance with personal commentary?
Social Media Zealots
Problogger
Conversational Media Marketing
Greg Verdino
Altitude Branding
The Buzz Bin
Being Peter Kim
The Altimeter
CoBrandit
Web-Strategist
Groundswell