Internet Footprints are when we create an online identity that we know about. Later we will be learning about Digital Shadows which is where there is stuff about us that we have NOT wanted on the net, or wanted to keep off our online persona. I suspect this will be interesting for those of us who already has an online presence.
I have determined I have three distinct online personas. It used to be two but with university I have been forced to make it three. I start with my personal one: December or DecemberJane. Occasionally known as DecemberM. She’s a fun identity, laughing and having a ball – eats a lot, sleeps a lot, voices her opinion on everything from television to sport to the latest novel. Everything she says is deep enough to be interesting but not profound.
decuni is the second personal identity that is specificially for my uni studies. I needed to keep it separate as my decemberjane persona now has ties to a Redcliffe page and this is a business/travel page. It really isn’t appropriate to have this page attached to my personal page, but Facebook is complicated at times. decuni is resistant to referencing but intrigued with what she is learning in Internet Communications.
The similarities between these two identities is fairly uniform and to be expected. Afterall, they are both extensions of myself. Focus points, if you will. But certainly not me in my entirety. Is it possible to show yourself in your entirety to anyone, regardless of whether it’s online or offline? Surely the parts that people see, are the parts that are needed in different circumstances? If someone is in Mum mode, their kids will see someone completely different to who her best friend sees on the golf course.
And then there is dedicated2digital – my business persona that from the very first was all about branding and marketing. Whilst building and creating my online business, I quickly discovered that 2% of your time is devoted to actually running your business and 98% of it is marketing it. Brand awareness was key. I had the same logo plastered on a million advertising sites; I fought bitterly to have my business name treated with respect and spelled correctly; and I had to constantly give things away for free to keep my brand awareness amongst the customer.
The dedicated2digital.com identity has reduced to dedicated2digital now, especially since just before starting University I pulled down the website. But a cursory search of google still shows it has a presence, albeit a much smaller one. I guess without all those freebies, the brand awareness just dies away.
So my internet footprints are fading in the sand, but along with that gives me the opportunity to completely change the genre, field and persona of my business should I choose to do so. And that gives me lots of new ideas!
December @ University 