The Authentic Social Identity: A Challenging Experiment or an Inevitable Evolution?
Creating Higher Relevancy and Engagement Levels in Social Media.
This might be an experiment, a challenge, or a bit of both. But for certain, it is a genuine opportunity for those who wish to explore what true self-expression is, and for those who seek value in social media.
But first things first, a bit of context is required.
With existing social networks, you cannot share diversified content without adding noise and irrelevancy to your followers. This means that as a social media enthusiast you are unconsciously experiencing various forms of self-censorship, forced to the low common denominator of your network, restricting yourself to a limited set of themes, and your voice cannot be really heard.
Further Reading: The Disconnection Paradox of Existing Social Media Platforms.
The accumulated effect is that although we are all well-connected, we cannot leverage the true power of social networking. What we are sharing today is a minified, shallow representation of our true identities mostly due to technological limitations and psychological barriers. We are typically sharing and distributing “bits,” rather than sharing our invaluable insights. However, by doing so, not only we don’t create value to ourselves, but we also miss a much greater opportunity. We are basically connected, yet muted.
To get the most out of our online presence, we have to shift from consumption to self-expression and engagement. But for this to happen, we need to create higher levels of relevancy that will facilitate accuracy in discovery and fuel conversations naturally. We need to drive a change in the way we use social media today.
The Assumption
The assumption of this challenge is that if we are able to release ourselves from all foreign inhibitors, create and share our complete, authentic identity, with no boundaries, it will prove to be far-reaching in essence that we will get discovered and be able to connect with like-minded individuals on a more meaningful level.
Why is it important?
Sharing a complete, authentic identity will allow us to build active “tribes” who really care, and the idea of active tribes is what pulled us in the first place into social media. However, in reality, we all end up with a passive audience.
Understanding the Concept: A Complete Social Identity
When referring to a complete social identity, I mean an authentic, centralized online identity that is accurately replicating and (almost fully) overlapping one’s real-life identity. Although there might be a slight ambiguity, nowadays the term social identity is clearly associated with the context of social media.
So what is a social identity comprised of?
If you think about it, each of us possess a unique and rich set of passions, interests, domains of expertise, life experiences, as well as diversified opinions on subject matter. This unique mix is exactly what forms our real identities and makes each of us so unique and interesting. Our personal and professional knowledge-base is live, dynamic, deep, and diversified. Yet, we all tend to leave most of this treasure intact from our online presence.
What will happen if we are able to overcome all the limitations and barriers and connect our complete social identities together? Will it create new opportunities to connect? Will it validate the challenge’s assumption?
The key element to building a complete social identity is the understanding of the differences between authenticity and transparency, and how to utilize both without compromising privacy.
Authenticity
In the simplest terms, authenticity is your self-acceptance of who you really are. You are not attempting to portray yourself differently in efforts to please your surroundings. It is the simple realization that you are who you are, and you start embracing your true identity fully and genuinely. You are truthful, first and foremost to yourself, and then to your family, friends, and colleagues.
The more authentic you are, the more of a refined version of yourself that you are, the more that you are shown up to the world truthful to your passions, the more leverage you have, the more influence you have. Bold authenticity is the key signal of influence. Being boldly authentic, when you share your passions, when you share your truth, it is an immediate trust builder. And the more you do this on the long-term, people start to trust you. Lauryn Ballesteros, Thought Leader, TED.
In her talk, Lauryn explained that inauthenticity is the result of fear. A fear of rejection, a fear from being criticized, the fear of death. The death of who you think you are, how you think you are perceived by others.
Authenticity is therefore, a state of mind and it is a critical realization that is mandatory for dissolving your psychological barriers. It is a pre-requisite for true self-expression.
Transparency
To build a complete and far-reaching social identity, you have to be transparent. You have to be willing to share your opinions, passions, expertise, and life experiences. And although they can be used occasionally, “bits” (i.e., photography and links) are not sufficient enough to portray your true identity. Your insights (and your feedback to others) will be more valuable.
The more transparent you are, the more your social identity is far-reaching, the easier it is for others with overlapping interests to discover and converse with you.
Transparency is the lifeblood to your creativity and inspiration. In the context of sharing, if you are inauthentic and struggle to become transparent, you will find that there is nothing left to share. You are “blocked.” However, if you embrace your identity, and are willing to be transparent, you will find that it is much easier to share, because there is nothing simpler than sharing yourself.
Note however, that while practicing authenticity and transparency, you have at the same time to be respectful (or tactical). Unless of course you feel that your urgent message is at the core of the debate. Yet, there are always some circumstances in which it simply does not worth expressing publicly . That does not mean that you are inauthentic, it just means that you are respectful and sensitive enough.
Privacy
Does embracing authenticity and transparency fully, mean giving up privacy? Not necessarily.
First, most likely you are already sharing substantial fractions of your identity across multiple social media platforms. Regardless the various options and privacy settings, when sharing online, you have to assume to risk of unintentional disclosure.
The idea of creating a complete social identity is sharing your authentic identity: simply sharing who you really are with no boundaries. If there is anything broken in your identity that is worth hiding from someone, then this is not an issue of privacy, but rather an issue of you being inauthentic. And I agree that there might be other considerations. However, your ability to embrace authenticity and transparency is a testament for your own freedom and right for self-expression. The opposite is a plain slavery.
You should not fear sharing your true identity, and as Lauryn Ballesteros put it bluntly: What does your silence say? It is a liberating and rewarding experience. It is your opportunity to unleash yourself.
The Challenge:
The Authentic Social Identity Challenge provides you with the opportunity to experiment, validate, and refine the assumption together with other participants. We will initiate the experiment once we have reached the capacity of 500 participants. Therefore, your help promoting the idea further would be much appreciated.
To participate in this challenge:
- You are willing to commit to share 30 diversified snippets of your authentic identity that must be shared within a 60 days period.
- Each snippet could be as short as a typical tweet or a single paragraph, or as long as a full blog post.
- Recycling of old content is not allowed.
- At the end of the challenge, anyone who looks into your profile should be able to have an accurate assessment of who you are, what are your passions, interest, expertise, and opinions, and should be able to quickly identify overlapping interests.
- Your 31st snippet should outline your thoughts regarding the challenge, the positive and negative outcomes, and provide any additional feedback as you see right.
To join the challenge, please clicktotweet to get invited or email me michael[dot]zino[at]yayme.com: “ https://medium.com/p/5cc2ca633fa3 Just Joined the Authentic Social Identity Challenge with @michaelzino”
To share this article only (clicktotweet): “https://medium.com/p/5cc2ca633fa3 The Authentic Social Identity: A Challenging Experiment or an Inevitable Evolution? via @michaelzino #socialmedia“.
Note: We will be using a designated Google Group for general communication and YAYME’s platform that is designed with around the creation of complete social identities.
Special thanks to @diegohijano who reviewed the initial revisions of this article.
