It's a brand new world.
Smartphones. The Blogosphere. Social networks. Screen names and avatars. Platforms for every connected individual and business to connect, narrate and brand themselves. We are now living a media life (Deuze, 2011). Connecting has never been easier. Creating a self-narrative has never been more public and using these new platforms to develop your brand is developing into a postmodern mania. In the business world, brand development is a day to day activity. With the explosion of new media, people are rushing to get their Bieber on and carve out their own unique online persona.
I agree with Hartley (2009) in that “being savvy online is not as easy as it looks”. Should we be taking a leaf out of the marketing strategy of any well constructed business and develop a personal brand strategy in order to maintain transmedia consistency? Writing a set of guidelines to refer to before we tweet 140 avant-garde, and potentially misconstrued characters?
The challenge for all new media users is in our new found ability to connect, narrate and brand ourselves is the choice of using your faceplace to sell a pimped up version of reality, a cyber-nirvana or the tried and true real-world approach of keeping it real.
References
Deuze, M. (2011). Media Life. In Media, Culture & Society, Volume 33, issue 1, pp. 137-148.
Hartely, J (2009). John Hartely Int. P. Brown. Use Your Bloggin'. http://www.cci.edu.au/sites/default/files/alawrence/Use_your_bloggin
_Hartley_interview_Brisbane_News_725.pdf. (Accessed 2nd April, 2011)