New research on social media and its reflection of user identity

I just reviewed some new research just released by Adrienne Corn. My first exposure to Corn was through the Social Media Academy where I received a Social Media Consultant Certification and am a founding member. She presented on how social media has played a role in human resource management and talent management developments. It is the first quantitative research available that examines social media and identity. The research explores how accurate social media profiles are in reflecting the individual as well as its use by Human Resource departments, recruiting professionals and job hunting.

The results are encouraging in that 73% of those surveyed feel their social media profiles accurately reflect their identity: who they are, values, and personality.


What's your Internet dating personality?


Have you ever done any online dating? If you are not accurate in how you portray yourself, you may have to kiss a lot of toads before you find the right cyber toads. Social media and its success depend on being willing to share your authentic self and find the right associations. How do you portray yourself on LinkedIn (considered to be the most professional of networking sites) versus Facebook (considered to be much more casual with opportunities to be more playful)?


What side of your personality do you show on LinkedIn?


When I first started on LinkedIn, I was all business. On Facebook, I was all about my weekend activities. However over time and as I considered Facebook for business use, I found it too hard to separate the two. I also realized that either one alone was not an accurate reflection of my personality – I take my work seriously but not always myself. I do like to have fun at work and I recognized that my business contacts need to know how focused I am but also what I do in my downtime and the things that make me laugh. I want to know that about them as well. In other words, I need to know they are human not business machines.