What a positive online presence will translate into is a context upon which I can gauge other claims from their organization and the relative degree of confidence the employees of an organization have in the quality and fitness of purpose of their offerings. It is not the sole criteria in an acquisition decision, but effectively executed- each one of these social media interactions “shapes the battlefield” and supports the official messaging of the organization and offers valuable insight that makes an acquisition decision easier to justify. I look for consistency in the messaging between the official and unofficial narratives or useful information along the lines of “Product X is great for application Y but you need to know D, E, F and Q if you intend to use product X for application Z”

What a negative presence does is severely damage an organization’s competitive position. If a person who I know is closely affiliated with an organization speaks to me in a way I find condescending or otherwise offensive…I have to assume that that view is widely held by that organization. That guilt by association will make it easier to find reasons why that organization’s product or service isn’t a good fit for my organization’s unique needs when decision time rolls around. Social media simply means that offensive messaging find its way to more people faster and lives forever in Google’s cache.

I segregate my social media world into two – my professional persona and my private persona. @randydarthur on Twitter and http://www.trustedcloudservices.com are my professional personas. There I will talk cloud computing, IT Service Management and explore some of the commercial aspects of IT Outsourcing as a representative of CSC management. I won’t discuss things like religion or politics that are bound to get me in trouble with some elements of my readership. I will accentuate the positive things we are working on, as opposed to to slagging the competition – if I talk about what CSC is doing at all. My intent is to learn more about emerging cloud computing services and validate the approaches that we are taking with an expert audience. If I have a different point of view with one of the industry experts that post in these venues, I will advance my viewpoint in a respectful way- aware that I don’t have a monopoly on good ideas or brilliant insights. Above all, I want my readership to find my output *valuable* in some way and hope that that value translates into a more generalized view that I am not unique in CSC, and overall, CSC can bring similar value to their organization through our services.

My private social media persona is Facebook – where I can converse with my family and close personal friends. Much of the chatter is irrelevant to a professional IT audience – but all the people there know me and so I can address occasional topics that are incompatible with my professional persona.

This was a provocative and timely article. I enjoyed the way it crystallized some of my thoughts around social media outreach.

I also like what Naomi points out regarding SM platforms being used to “shout from the rooftops”. So true. It begs the questions as to whether SM space isn’t, or won’t become crowded with society’s shouters? Hmmm…

I was reminded that branding was what we used to do with cattle and that was about ownership and belonging and recognizable and traceable directly to the owner.

It is as you say about developing a unique personality or fingerprint of what you stand for. You make a superb point it goes way beyond of which you are and ultimately defines character and time reputation and what you stand for. There lies the rub!

We are all too familiar with what happens to those who fall of their “pedestal” brand or “what they become known for” Failed businesses and personalities are strewn all over the road to “image” which is what the brand defines.

We only have to look at the US Car business and many other manufacturers, who so many years ago made the “product of American choice” Where, are they today? Did they as you say fall away from the very concept of what they were portraying? Or did they not live up to their image or did it simply become outdated?

I believe that you raise a critical question at a crucial time. That of what do we want to be known for? And then consider how we go about reinventing ourselves to keep ahead of the economic curve. I don’t mean change the brand, or maybe I do? Perhaps that is what is needed as long as the cores stuff remains the same, and then I wonder does that have to stay?

I may even conjecture that we need to consider how we market our brand always being mindful others are thinking the same and that reality and concept must be the same, or is that true?

That’s a scary thought, is the brand just that, a marketing gimmick! Is it all just image?