Balance

Does anyone else struggle with the balance of being professional and casual when creating an online profile?

Looking For Myself by mini malist (CC BY-ND 2.0)

I know I do, and I think it will be something that I definitely have to learn by doing! For me personally, I think I can come across as someone who is a little aloof. It’s been a learning curve, and even now I don’t really think I have that much personality on platforms that I have been on for a while.

When you think about it, you realise that how you come across is so important online. A lot of the time your profile or site will be the only contact people have with you, at least in the beginning. A first introduction, if you will. You don’t want to seem too uptight or unreachable, and you don’t want to come across as someone who doesn’t care. Depending on what you’re trying to do with your new platform, the way people perceive you can make a huge difference to your success or failure.

Struggle by Mark Ingle (CC BY 2.0)

This was my first post on Twitter. Looking back on it now, I realise how stale and boring it was, how easy it was to overlook. I know now that this was not the introduction I wanted to give, and I know I can grow from this. Thankfully, I’m not the only one who has made this mistake, and there are ways to fix it.

Creating a profile on any type of social media, particularly a new one, can be daunting. In addition to learning how a site works, how to use tagging systems and how to find what you want to see, you have to figure out how you want to be seen.

And this can be very tricky. Especially because it has a lot to do with this concept of ‘self’.

In Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online (2014), Anna Poletti and Julie Rak tell us that “the concept of anonymity is problematic because it fixes the relationship between being and feeling in a way that limits exploration of the significant differences between these two conditions” (pg 26). This line really resonated with me, and it was only after reading through this article that I realised how limited I was with my Tumblr in particular.

To put it another way, people only knew me online as ‘Nox’. I had basic information – like my age and gender – but that was all I gave out. Growing up, I was raised with the belief that sharing anything more would result in some sort of kidnapping or, as I grew older, that someone would be able to steal my identity or money. In only allowing ‘Nox’ to be known, I ended up in a pretty constricting box and constantly found myself trying to figure out if what I posted and said was keeping in line with what ‘Nox’ would say.

Trapped by Darion (CC BY-ND 2.0)

When I created both my Twitter and WordPress sites, I had a far more professional approach than I had had when first creating my Tumblr. I was more aware of what I wanted to do with social media, and much more mature than I had been. And instead of being an anonymous nobody, I had something to work with – my following on Tumblr.

I gave some thought to my pictures and my description, and I decided to start linking in some of the sites that actually revealed my identity. I retweeted things that interested me and that were relevant to what I wanted to be known for.

It hasn’t really changed much, honestly. But I feel like I have more freedom to be myself in my varying forms.

When we make new social media pages or profiles, there is this idea of creating a ‘real’ you. Described in the aforementioned article as a you that is “unique, singular, and outside social constructions and constraints” (pg 71), most of us would feel the need to become someone new, or to come up with a new persona that fits with what we want to show people.

But is that really what we’re doing?

Or are we just expressing a previously ignored or evolving part of ourselves that we’ve just never noticed before? Thinking about what it means to have a balance – it means you are already both, right? A little bit casual, a little bit professional. You just have to figure out how you want to be perceived, and then the rest is up to the people around you. And that’s something you can’t control.

Freedom by Natia Koiava (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Regardless of what you believe – whether it’s that the ‘you’ online is who you really are, or whether you believe that the ‘you’ online is just a facet of your identity, an ever changing shape that is influenced by everything around you – always keep in mind that this is little more than a balancing game.

Good luck!

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Reference List:

Smith, S and Watson, J 2014, ‘Virtually Me: A Toolbox about Online Self-Presentation’, in Poletti, A and Rak, J, Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 70-95

Social Media And Writing

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In my few years of writing, both fanfiction and original work, I’ve discovered how important social media  platforms like Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram are in terms of getting yourself recognised.

My Tumblr is about 4 years old, and it has changed a lot since. I started posting a lot about the practice of Wicca. A very interesting topic, and one I used as a huge inspiration for my first ever NaNoWriMo.

First edit for first chapter by Caitlyn Davis

(Over 85,000 words later, I still haven’t finished that particular novel. One day, one day.)

After that, I started trying to reach into the writing community on Tumblr – writeblr, as it’s called. I started re-blogging so many guides and tips and tricks. Even if I didn’t necessarily agree with them, I posted them.

When that didn’t work (and by that I mean I wasn’t immediately recognised and started gaining followers), I slowed down a lot. I started re-blogging a lot of memes and things I laughed at.

And then I got into writing fanfiction, and after finishing the first part of a work which ended up being about 100,000 words, I realised something.

My Tumblr only started gaining some followers when I started telling people about it.

When I started posting the link to my Tumblr in the comment section, I had so many more people trickle in to follow me. It was not a lot, of course. But it was more growth in a few months than I had seen in a few years.

Around the same time, I started my Twitter account. This is my first ever tweet, which was just a general hello to the Twitter world. Afterwards, I tried to keep the very few people who followed me updated with when new chapters were going up.

I lost that drive, and my tweeting schedule fell to pieces as I was once again sucked into NaNoWriMo’s death grip. A few tweets happened during that time – I attempted to start a blog, the last update happening only a couple of months after I started tweeting about it.

In the long run, I know my platforms will continue to grow and change as I do. I am always happy to stumble onto a new way to get myself out there, and maybe this blog will be it. Maybe I will finally find my niche. Who knows?

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The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me! We’re in for a wild ride, I’m sure.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton