I was reading a blog post (I don't remember who it was by now) last week about the creation of an online persona, and how it's critical to your "brand" and the usual over-thinking nonsense. It came to mind again while watching a little New Year's Eve TV (which is awful), when the hosts were talking about the immediacy and impact that saying stupid things can have.
While none of this is new to me, putting these two things together got me to thinking about how silly the marketing people are about online personas. These aren't things that you can manufacture. If the Internet has taught us anything, it's that you can't fake authenticity. Twitter has been the worst thing ever for celebrities because it removes the machinery that normally maintains their image. Companies go the opposite length by putting up all that machinery in front of the actual people.
To me this is just another example of how online life isn't nearly as different as real life. If someone is authentic, and by that I mean what you see is what you get, you can't fake that. Politicians have been failing at that for hundreds of years. If you know me, you know I'm passionate about my little family, good software and theme parks. The same thing comes through when I write here or if we're friends on Facebook. Diana is all about quilting, and it's obvious when you meet her, or read her blog (which you do subscribe to, right?).
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