Effectively Establishing Your Web Identity
May 28 2008 
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Normally if someone asked me about my area of expertise I’d say that I’m a social media maven. And while I can be, I’m beginning to think that maybe that word is too limiting as it pertains to establishing my web identity. Not the word maven, but social media.
What’s In A Name?
Seems a lot is in a name actually. From my perspective, social media isn’t going to cut it as an identifier in my web identity. It’s a bubble name and bubbles are bound to pop at any moment. I don’t want to identify myself as a bubble, though I do want to identify with the bubble. While social media may be the term of the month or even the next couple of months, I think there’s something else that will be on the horizon by the end of the year.
Finding Your Area of Expertise
There are various ways to define your web identity. First, keep in mind that when it comes to your identity, stability is important. Unlike your personal identity is isn’t life altering nor careering damaging to switch your identity from time to time. This isn’t a social security number. On the other hand, repeatedly changing can cause your audience to think of you as…fickle. You want to establish your niche and your expertise. Instead of changing, why not expand. Add on to your identity to let your audience know that you’re also developing your knowledge in other areas.
Establishment
This is probably the hardest part about finding and developing your web identity and a hard lesson that I’m learning now. Establishing your area of expertise is difficult. Why? Well first you need to know what you want to be an expert in. Until then, there’s nothing else you can do, but experiment until you find what’s right for you. I’m still experimenting, though I’ve found several niches that could be right for me.
Once you establish that area of expertise you have to develop other areas. You can’t sit on one thing. While it can continue to be your main focus, the point is to establish yourself in as many areas as possible. Otherwise you could go stagnant. This relates to "what’s in a name". A lot of things on the web these days are bubbles. Social media just might be another term in the book in a few years. Do you want your identity to be the same? While it might help with establishing the years of your expertise, you may also become outdated if you’re not picking up on other areas too.
Brainstorming Aloud
I’m just brainstorming out loud, but has anyone else experienced the same? Are you going through it now? What steps are you taking to choose your field of expertise as a way to effectively establish your web identity?
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My web identity is based around my family, social life and social media/networking. I have wondered whether to divide my blog into two, having one for my personal life and one for my technological interests.
I really doubt I will ever generate much interest in my blog as others but I write for me as an outlet. This has changed massively over the years, since I split from my childrens mother to now where I am between personal/interests.
However you establish yourself there is always going to be change however slight as you change through experiences and what you learn. Your thinking process is similar to mine in the sense that where do I go/grow and am I doing this for me or am I writing for the acceptance of others! Do I jump on the popularity of FriendFeed/Twitter and write solely for those sites, do I follow someone else's example, writing style etc. I see all the questions I find myself as a good problem to have though!
I think I drifted from the point a little, sorry!
Yeah… My issue is the other “Kevin Kelly” (though I'm technically a Kelley) who is way more famous than I am ever likely to be.
My web identity is pretty much closely tied to my real life. If you Google me, you would probably be confused. There are at least 4 major areas that I could be considered expert in, depending on who you ask :)
I was thinking of trying to separate these things across different blogs or something like that, but I think it would be easier in the long run to just throw it all together and let others pick the parts they like.
I'm struggling with the same thing myself. My job title is “developer” and has been for several years. But I've never considered myself a programmer or a code monkey for the sake of code – for me it's always been about the means of communicating and fostering community.
So along comes this fancy new term, “social media'. It seems right up my alley. My “tech blog” doesn't contain much about code anymore, it's about this new way of looking at communication and crowdsourcing and data portability and …
But I don't want to call it a web2.0 blog, or a social media blog, or an {insert new buzz word here} blog. It's each of those things, and it's more than just of those things. Like you say, I don't want to become associated with a single bubble..
Very interesting post. I echo many of the things that you mention here. I think I know where my niche is, however, I struggle with the term “expert”. I guess it depends on perspective. While I may know more about a certain subject than the average joe I can't help but look at the people that I consider experts and wonder how much value that I could add.
Rather than splitting things between two blogs you could use some combination of tags and css to split your blog into two panes. That would give it the look of a newspaper page.
I like it cheers for the idea, I will have a look around for some examples and try and borrow their layout to test!
I like it cheers for the idea, I will have a look around for some examples and try and borrow their layout to test!
I like it cheers for the idea, I will have a look around for some examples and try and borrow their layout to test!