The truth about internet profiles

Nearly 17 years ago, the New Yorker ran what is probably still the best-known cartoon about the World Wide Web. It featured two dogs sat at a computer, with one pawing the keyboard while saying to his chum, "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

The notion that the internet is full of barefaced liars remains a popular one. And with good reason: dating sites allow Devito-esque men to pass themselves off as Schwarzenegger, while teens on MySpace Photoshop away their acne. And then there are the internet predators, such as Peter Chapman, convicted this month for murdering Ashleigh Hall, a 17-year-old girl he befriended online.

But for all the horror stories, there remains little hard evidence of how far the 700 million-plus users of MySpace, Facebook and other social-networking sites adopt a different persona online. So Mitja Back, a psychologist at Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, set out to get some. And he eventually found that internet profiles are more truthful than you might think.

Back and his colleagues got 236 American and German students with Facebook accounts to fill in personality questionnaires that gave a picture of their openness, extroversion and other traits. Independent observers then scrutinized the respondents' Facebook pages, nosing through the photos, the messages and the listed interests. And they found a remarkable degree of overlap between how students projected themselves on the internet and how they saw themselves in real life. Outgoing teenagers didn't pretend to be sullen online; introverts didn't pose as the life and soul of the party.

Two caveats should be made here. Back and his team only surveyed those between 17 and 22 years old, and were purely interested in broad personal characteristics. But for Back, the study suggests people behave more honestly online than they are given credit for. Which is something to think about, next time you come across a Facebook page for an old friend who appears to have made a million and kept all their hair.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a addition to personal, small business, corporate, and non-profit organizations’ integrated marketing communications plans. Integrated marketing communications is a multifaceted, orchestrated marketing and advertising practice organizations follow to connect with their target markets. Integrated marketing communications coordinates promotional elements: advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing and sales promotion. Increasingly, viral marketing campaigns are also grouped into integrated marketing communications. In the traditional marketing communications model, the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications by the organization is in collaboration with an external agent, i.e. advertising agencies, marketing research firms and public relations firms. However, the growth of social media has impacted the way organizations communicate. With the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online

Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it is coming from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.

Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. With emergence of channels like Twitter, the barrier to entry in social media is greatly reduced.

                                                

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube are household names, and lacking a presence on these social media giants is no longer an option. Social Focus provides comprehensive account set-up and design customization options, including a broad range of marketing campaign services that will help you manage and grow your networks on these communities. Please contact us for our social media design & social media management rates. Keep your finger on the pulse of social media marketing and keep your brand consistent with the help of our expert design and marketing team.

Abdullah Taleb Bin Mahfodh
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