The Social Media Cult of Personality (Introduction)
“I’m the cult of per 
son ality …” ~ Living Colour, Cult of Personality
| a cult promoting adulation of a living national leader or public figure, as one encouraged by Stalin to extend his power. |
‡ 1965–70; trans. of Russ kulʾt líchnosti
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
| cult of personality | |
| noun | |
| intense devotion to a particular person |
Social embodies the cult of personality in so many ways:
- It is a game of follow the leader and leading the followers
- It gives us the space to express who we are without having to utter a word (visual impact of images) or even by what we type
- It enables us to persuade and even manipulate – both in good and bad ways
- And we get to tell a story by creating a narrative in posts, updates, tweets, links and images
At the end of the day, social media provides a platform that allows us to be in a spotlight for 15 minutes of fame or infamy. Note all of the folks who have achieved almost rock star status for the knowledge of social media on Twitter, and note the rock stars who by using Facebook and MySpace and other networks have gained legions of followers.
Personality is the key to all of the leading and following. An online persona or personality can easily mirror an offline personality. An online persona or personality can also be contrived and carefully crafted to achieve an end result that is either deceptive or authentic and transparent.
One of my favorite social media thinkers, Adrian Chan, offers a wonderful slide presentation, Social Media Personality Types, which outlines the 7 social media user types he’s identified.
Chan and the Digital Urbanite Panel at this past SxSW (Angela Benton, Theda Saniford, Navarrow Wright, Wayne Sutton and James Andrews) premise that (1) the social media personality is predicated upon one’s use of social media and (2) that use is not singular in purpose but rather use is as unique as the user. That stated, how do you use social media in PR and publicity? And, what is your social media personality.
To thine own self be true.
Best, Robin
Robin Caldwell