Embrace Yourself on Social Media — the digital self and brand linkages.
“In essence, Facebook is the stage, brands are the props, and the users are the actors. The users must utilize brands to present themselves to their audiences.” (Shea, F, 25)
It is common to share what you bought on social media like Facebook and Twitter. However, do you know the pictures and content you posted on social media were selected unconsciously just to show off your digital self?
The same issue to myself, I describe myself as a marketer who looking for an internship on my Facebook page. I always like to share many business-related books and theories but I won’t share a great second-hand skating board I bought after a long-time bargain. Why? Because it is no professional. My actual self and ideal self are incongruous.
The Actual self, Ideal self, and Digital self.
In the field of consumer behaviors, we divide a person into two different personas - actual self and ideal self. The actual self expresses your more realistic characteristics in the real world while the ideal self is more likely the person you want to be.
But on social media, the situation could be more complicated. According to the research done by Candice R. Hollenbeck and Andrew M. Katikati of Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, they found that the ideal self is combined with two aspects, ideal self-presentation, and ideal self-representation. The motivation of ideal self-presentation is self-protection, which is about how people want to be perceived by others. and for ideal self-representation, the motivation is self-enhancement is more likely about people want to enhance themselves to be the person they want to be. Besides, it has to be clarified that the ideal self-representation and ideal self-presentation stem from the actual self.
On social media, the platform that people can express themselves freely, they always like to create an online character that may differ from themselves offline. We call the online character the digital self. Normally, the digital self is a mix of actual self, ideal self-presentation, and ideal self-representation.
The Congruous and Incongruous Identities on Social Media.
According to the situation mentioned at the beginning, the motivation that I avoid sharing the second-hand deal on Facebook is ideal self-protection, which means my actual self and my ideal self are incongruous: A serious marketer(ideal) won’t buy a second-hand skating board(actual) on Kijiji. Candice R. Hollenbeck and Andrew M. Katikati conclude that consumers will express themselves in different ways when brand linkages caused a conflict among the actual self, ideal self-representation, and ideal self-presentation.
When the actual self, ideal self-representation, and ideal self-presentation are congruous, consumers use brand linkages to:
1, Maintain the self-concept through greater actual self-expression. (I am a marketing student and proud of that.)
2, Enhance the self-concept through greater ideal self-representation. (I want to be a professional marketer.)
3, Protect the self-concept through greater ideal self-presentation. (I want others to know that I am a marketer.)
When the actual self, ideal self-representation, and ideal self-presentation are incongruous, consumers use brand linkages to:
1, Protect and enhance the self-concept through exclusive ideal self-expression. (I am an introvert but I still tag myself as an extrovert on social media just because people like them.)
2, Avoid expressing specific characteristics.
The digital self and personalities.
Besides, in the primary research, about 30% of applicants expressed themselves in a more actual way than an ideal way, while 70% tended to express themselves in a more ideal way. Also, most of 30% of applicants are more confident and have a lot of friends on Facebook; while a majority of 70% are new on Facebook and don’t have many friends. Researchers also noticed that the way of expressing self can change from more ideal to more actual when people are gradually adapting to the environment.
“When I first came to college I think that I was all ideal, but now I am a little of both…I feel like I am at a point in my life where I feel more comfortable with my actual self,” Deb said.
The digital self and brand marketing strategy.
Study shows that people treat brand linkages differently depends on digital self congruity. When brands serve a congruous identity, it is good for promoting brands within the target consumers’ friend group. However, when brands serve an incongruous identity, they will waste marketing resources on the wrong target market. Therefore, based on the research, to make the marketing strategy more effective, there are few tips:
a) When doing online marketing surveys, examine carefully applicants’ social groups. It is a good way to improve demographics research.
b) Try to serve ads with ideal images to new users on social media.
c) Set dynamic customized promotion strategy for social media users over time.
The relationship between digital marketing and the digital self is much complicated nowadays, it requires marketers to try their best to take off the avatars' masks in the digital world. “My character shown on Facebook is not who I really am. I have the ability to be really professional, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at my Facebook page.” Daniel said.