Monday 3 June 2013

"Legio mihi nomen est, quia multi sumus." - What is your name amongst your online community?

Confusion arises amongst your online community if they are expecting English but get Latin.

‘’ My name is Legion: For we are many’’.

 How many social networks do you have representing your ‘Digital Being’? The omnipresence of social media now makes it possible to create a digital representative which you wish to communicate to your customers. This ‘Being’ is immortal (until you delete your account) and is accessible (dependent on your privacy settings) at all times.

But are you consistent with this portrayal in all social feeds?

If you are a business or a business representative you represent a brand. Period. If your business is for example an endorser of healthy food and you’ve spent millions on online and offline marketing; yet your Instagram account regularly depicts you gorging on junk food, your consumers are left confused. An off the cuff tweet on Twitter can leave you with a few thousand less customers.

It’s a drastic example but look at the example of #FBRape – A single hashtag that caused the omnipotent online deity that is Facebook in changing its policy on content publication endorsing rape and violence against women after a social media campaign. Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, writer and activist Soraya Chemaly and Jaclyn Friedman from Women, Action & the Media joined forces to launch the hashtag Twitter campaign #FBRape last Tuesday and saw companies such as Finnair, Dove and Nissan UK contact Facebook to block their advertisements on the site.

Of course you don’t advocate violence against women (or men for that matter) but what about that ‘funny’ meme you just re-posted on Instagram?


Your online name has now become as important, if not more so, than your offline. As such it is imperative to you as either a business or business representative to ensure that in an online world where landscapes change in micro-seconds your online name remains consistently, The Same. 

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