Personality Will Determine Your Social Media Effectiveness

By Frank Reed
Expert Author
Article Date: 2009-01-22

The world of social media has many pluses. There is exposure to ideas and exposure for ideas. There is finding people in areas that you may never have found them before. There are new ‘relationships' formed (this one is much more precarious since we can significantly water down the definition of relationship in the online space). There are business leads that can be generated and a lot more.

There are significant minuses as well. There are unhealthy ‘back and forth' responses in blog posts. There are attacks to flame a person that can be carried out with a mob mentality. It can become much more vicious than it ever could in person because of internet ‘courage' that is gained by many because there is no threat of real harm to them when they sit behind their computer all day. People use vicious language and aggressive stances to ‘make a point'. You've probably seen this yourself if you spend any time online.

Like all things in life there are good and bad. How you get involved and to what level may well be determined by your personality type. Here's what I mean.

Laid back - I think these folks will have minimal success in the social media world. It appears that the more aggressive and outspoken you get the more attention you get. I call this the Rush Limbaugh factor. In today's world of ‘everyone is right' the bigger the bluster the bigger the splash. Laid back folks won't fair well here. Great thing is that they may be so laid back that they don't care.

Confident - This is a good quality in any aspect of life. In the social media space it can help but if it is not accompanied with some form of hubris (extreme pride) you will just be another voice in a very cluttered space of fellow ‘confident' people.

Aggressive - You can get a lot of attention by being aggressive but like attracts like. In business, I think this works against you tremendously because many good people will not want to do business with an aggressive personality. Those who do, tend to be aggressive themselves so the business is based on power etc which will be transactional in the long run not based on trust and relationship. Never say never though. I suppose a relationship could form but the likelihood is far less and dysfunction is not too much fun either.

Caring - May be too soft for true success in social media. Caring people tend to have thinner skin and the online world requires a pretty thick skin to survive.

Outspoken - This is the one personality type that I think has the best chance if the outspoken personality is a good mix of confidence and borderline arrogance. This is a very fine line that can attract people from both camps yet actually build relationships with those who you may be able to work with in the future.

Liar - This is closely associated with the online actor. No matter where you are in life if you are not being real your success will be limited.

Angry - This is the Howard Stern type who is quick to call names and offend those who dare not agree with them. I have had a few exchanges with these types and it is these exchanges that have made me very suspect of how I interact online because this is a prevalent type out there. They want to be right all the time and won't stand for opposing opinions. They use inappropriate language and confuse personal attack with making a point. Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh are great examples of this. Interestingly enough, these are some of the bigger personalities online currently. While I have a few more names in mind there is literally no benefit to mentioning them.

Honest - While limited in how far this type of person can go (which is a sad statement I know) this is the one that will have genuine success and relationships online. These types will stand on their positions, respectfully respond to nay-sayers, admit when they are wrong (WHAT?!?!?!) and actually care about the people they interact with. They will be less concerned about numbers and more concerned about genuine interaction.

What are you like in real life? Are you able to be a different person online? Should you be? Do you even want to be? Should you even be involved in social media? All legit questions. Are there types you see that have not been mentioned? Let me know.

FT Takeaway: Your personality type and the ability for it to translate online will determine how well you can use social media for business or personal reasons. There are no hard and fast rules. You need to get in and test the waters to see if you have what it takes.

Comments

About the Author:
Frank Reed is the founder of SEMCheck and provides advice and consulting for SMBs at FrankThinking.com.