Friday 27 March 2009

Who are you?

Long before The Who made money from forensics they seemed to think that schizophrenia involved multiple personalities. In reality it involves multiple miseries. Take my word for it - we have lived with it in our family. No, sir, multiple personalities are usually elective. We've all created a whole series of different faces for ourselves ever since we first did social around the camp fire. And now we do social media. This party doesn't require our total attendance. Just send along part of yourself.

Viewing tweets recently I wondered, how far are ordinary people prepared to go? Political allegiance? Social policy beliefs? Sexual predelictions? What about, opinions on your employer? And just how much you would like to throw that brick - and who at? This is quite a big personal brand thing. This is danger, this stuff isn't on your CV. And it's starting to bother corporations.

Twitter is a medium that brings out a candid comment in one hundred and forty characters. And if you are prepared to put the hours in, you can have one hundred and forty different characters of your own. I've don't think I've witnessed anyone actually have a spat with themselves, as yet. A matter of time.

This is a public medium - but it feels like the public house. Here is a building where everything you say is pasted up on the outside. No wonder organisations are getting nervy. I expect very soon corporations will make their feelings known quite specifically via their contracts of service. You see, it takes effort for the disgruntled to blog their ire, but stuff is more likely to hit the fan more often in the heat of a mobile moment. And this will come from an employee with inside info - as anonymous as a guy with a gun in a balaclava. Logged in via one of his nastier personalities. Reputation will be at stake in cases of malice as well in situations of justified disgruntlement. This is a world of both transparency and potential duplicity that few enterprises have fully yet to understand.

This really was me, and both of my twitter persona are very nice guys indeed. I'm sure they won't get fooled again.

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