A thought piece presented by the Digital Lab and prepared by Sarah Jane Blackman and Pierre-Jean Choquelle of Proximity Paris dissecting the phenomenon of modern-day digital social expression and the Super...
2. Introduction
Social performance culture. p. 3
The Social Super Ego. p. 4
Observing the Social Super Ego in action. p. 7
The arts and crafts of image management. p. 10
Lifecasting: updating existence. p. 15
The many shapes of digital endorsement. p. 19
The rush of personal branding. p. 21
The brand reactions so far. p. 25
Boosting the Social Super Ego. p. 26
The Social Super Ego as part of the brand story. p. 28
Giving the Social Super Ego a purpose. p. 30
Playing with the Social Super Ego. p. 34
3 steps to seduce the Social Super Ego. p. 39
Conclusion. p. 45
Bibliography. p. 46
Acknowledgements. p. 47
Links. p. 48
Contents
3. 1
Today, admitting to a digital native
that you are not present on a social
network such as Facebook or Twitter
is somewhat of a social ‘faux pas’.
It gets them wondering, have you
nothing to say? Have you no friends?
Perhaps you are social outcast,
or just totally uncool? It’s as if there
is a whole part missing from you,
a sense of ‘you don’t exist until you
are there’. One could easily say that
social networks have become such
a natural mode of self-expression
that they are now seen to be the tool
for defining who you are.
While on the outside much of social
networking looks like a seamless
extension of real life, the context for
creating our identity is clearly not the
same as in the real world. The digital
environment is an unpredictable,
evolving territory. A ubiquitous
‘nervous system’ that is transparent,
fluid, public, and permanently on.
We are experiencing a turning point
in history, where our psychological
reflexes are learning to adapt
rapidly to a series of very unusual
challenges. How to express yourself
when you don’t know who might
be reading you? How to give a real
sense of your personality in 3 images
and a list of film preferences?
How to say you are ‘in love’ to your
friends, without all your colleagues
at work knowing? Defining ourselves
in this public networked universe
demands a whole new approach,
and a whole set of survival tactics to
be heard, to be seen, to BE.
It is questionable whether today we
really understand the true impact
of social media on consumer
psychology, nor the extent of ‘self
promotion’ mania driven by our need
to broadcast our uniqueness to the
world. So far brands have been in
such a blind race for fans,
in such fear of not getting a word in,
that they have been neglecting the
motivations of the social individuals
they are targeting. The ‘social’
contract established with consumers
can consequently feel very contrived,
based on conversations such as
“If You LIKE me, you could win a...”.
Empty promises that certainly drive
a few ‘likes’, but do not address the
social persona in its totality.
The idea is that by understanding
how consumers create their identity
in the social space we can move
beyond a defensive strategy
of mirroring basic narcissistic desires.
This will ultimately help us create
long-term relationships, and get
a deeper sense of ourselves in our
quest to build inspiring digital brand
identities.
Introduction
5. 54
The point of this article is not to say
that Facebook is the evil of mankind,
labelling all social media users as
pathological narcissists. But rather
to acknowledge, that in this very
transparent, ‘public’ environment,
most of us will show a tendency to
perform for an audience with varying
degrees of awareness and intention.
Whether you are a professional
anarchist, Italian food lover, or proud
new mum, the pressure is ON to get
your performance in shape. While
the lack of identifiable audience is a
major factor in this pressure,
(it could be your mum looking at
your profile, or a boy you secretly
fancied for years), there are other
elements that exacerbate it. Social
platforms are imbued with their own
linguistic culture that promotes the
limelight gaze. Whether it revolves
around ‘likes’, ‘fans’, ‘followers’,
‘diggs’, we are tacitly reminded of the
high expectations we have to live up
to, of what others want to see and
hear from us, and not just twice a
week. Mobile social connectivity and
geo-location services now mean we
are increasingly expected to be here,
there and everywhere, in real time,
simultaneously.
The Social Super
Ego
In this paradoxical, pressured
universe, it is no wonder that our
minds have to do some significant
mental acrobatics to readjust.
Possibly the most simple and
interesting way to understand this
mental shift is through the prism
of psychoanalysis. This is not a
neuroscientific explanation, but
rather a metaphoric one, that helps
frame the issue within the context of
performance and every day life. On
a basic level Freud tells us that the
mind is structured with the three
infamous actors: the id, ego and
the super ego, each with their own
role, making it possible for us to
function and fit in to society. The ego
is the peacekeeper, surrounded by
an instinctive Id, constantly seeking
pleasure, and a very socially aware
Super Ego, striving for perfection
and acceptance. With the advent the
social media, it seems that the Super
Ego, is becomingly increasingly
dominant and conscious in this
threesome, to the point where it
hogs the entire stage. While Freud
and Dr. Elias Aboujaoude (Stanford
Researcher) would regard this a
highly dysfunctional dynamic, one
could argue that such hyper activity
has evolved into a radically new
psychological asset. For the first
time ever, within hours, anyone can
envisage becoming a contagious
Internet meme, and even start a
revolution.
Either way the specifics of the
digital social stage have given
birth to a new kind of performer
that is an augmented version of
his Freudian cousin. We call it the
Social Super Ego. Constantly on a
high from making new connections,
and obsessed with nourishing its
infinite audience, it always presents
itself in the best light possible.
It is highly creative, and often goes
to great lengths to produce an
ideal model of itself with whatever
media there is to play with (images,
text bites or video). Hyper alert
and hypersensitive, it censors and
filters anything that threatens its
reputation.
While all this seems rather
unnerving, there comes a point
where we can no longer ignore,
or label it as an anomaly of digital
media. It does not take much
reflection to notice that the impulse
is so strong in each one of us.
The Social Super Ego should be
named and recognized,
if we are to ever get to grips
with understanding how to
communicate and impact our
consumers online.
8. 10 11
It’s the first step, what will
represent you in the digital space,
your first introduction to the world.
It’s your profile picture;
your idealized mirror image.
Whether you prefer to change
photos everyday or stay with the
same forever, profile pictures are
never picked at random, because
even saying, “I don’t care” takes
some thinking.
Image obsession
Contrary to the early-web era,
profile pictures are nowadays
a living, breathing part of our
online life and no longer mere
representations of our virtual persona.
With the introduction of profile
albums, Facebook has intensified
the need to play around with the
way we decide to portray ourselves,
encouraging users to display
ever-changing depictions of their
moods through time. And of
course, this also means paying
acute attention to the way your
image is being displayed by others.
Monitoring party pictures and
past-bedtime updates has become
more than a necessary evil. Tag-
management is a skill, mastered
by even the lightest users who
painstakingly remove tags from
embarrassing or unflattering pictures
or even add them to pictures that do
them more justice.
The arts and crafts
of image management
Design by Alexandre Oudin
10. 14 15
Lifecasting: updating
existence
Social networking and its
transformation into mobile
applications have accustomed
users to openly promote every
aspect of their lives. A bad mood,
a new job, a spiritual reflection,
a sudden rant… anything is good
for sharing and everything is done
to encourage this update frenzy.
From reflecting to broadcasting
It is no longer about reflecting back
on your day and writing down
your emotions (as people did with
blogs or personal diaries) but rather,
commenting on your own life as it
happens, to an audience that is not
clearly known. The developments
of micro-blogging services have
encouraged people to be more
instantaneous and have normalized
short-easily-digested updates.
As a result, social networks
are buzzing with hundreds and
thousands of individual streams vying
for attention (it’s been determined
that 95% of updates go un-noticed).
A bittersweet necessity
Whether it is a full-on approach
or a damage-control habit,
visual management is now
an essential part of digital
life. The risks of losing control
are well anticipated, from
employees google-searching
candidates or mothers
monitoring an unsuspecting
son’s photos. Perhaps the
most vibrant example of image
and reputation manipulation
skills is that of a young girl who
managed to take revenge on
her ex-boyfriend by turning him
into an Internet meme.
Using a meme-generator
website, she flooded Google
images with dozens of classic
‘lolcat’-like pictures of the
unfortunate fellow. Not that he
could really have prevented
such an attack (apart from
being a better boyfriend).
23. 40 41
While there are many consumers
who act like professional PR agents,
for a lot of people the social pressure
to perform online can be quite
overwhelming. Think of smart ways,
to boost idealized personas and help
people rise to the occasion.
On the other hand acknowledge
performance anxiety, by thinking of
ways to ease the pressure of being
perfect, and keeping reputations
safe from the hungry gaze of the
social public. Find the right balance
for your branded community spaces;
maybe they should be tilted towards
havens of peace rather than dens of
pure fan competition.
Action points:
1. Entering into the mindset of the
social super ego requires seeing
digital life through its very eyes.
It is imperative to sign up to as
many social network platforms
as possible, from Twitter, Digg,
Farmville, Foursquare etc. Learn
to experiment, create your own
networks, and understand the
thrill of being ‘followed’ from the
inside.
2. Learn the ‘languages’ of digital
ecosystems so you can connect
emotionally and deeply with their
concerns, for more visibility or less.
3. Educate community managers
on the Social Super Ego as a real
character to confront, so they can
respond with more impact.
1
Empathise
with the
pressure
to perform
24. 42 43
Survival in the digital world is no
different than in the real. There is
a set of basic needs that must be
met for people to feel fulfilled and
happy. The Social Super Ego is
no different in that it has complex
levels of desires to be satisfied.
Instead of just appealing to the most
superficial, start thinking on how to
cater for your digital consumers on
3 fundamental levels. How to make
them feel loved and give them a
sense of belonging?
How to nurture their self-esteem?
How to help them actualise their
dreams? Responding to all these
needs will help establish the
foundations for more meaningful
long-term relationships.
We have used the framework of the
Maslow Pyramid to help you identify
the different levels of the Social
Super Ego, and what motivates
it in its quest for happiness and
acceptance in the digital world.
2
Embrace all
aspects of
the social
super ego
The path
to Social Super Ego
enlightenment
5 - INFLUENCING
The need to be acknowledged and
referred to as a unique personality with
talent, opinion or expertise.
Maximizing your online presence
through personal blogs, vlogs, websites,
branding yourself.
4 - MONITORING
The need to asses the reactions of our
audiences and our relevance to improve
our global online reputation.
Qualifying and quantifying the reactions
to your posts, likes, comments,
assessing your influence score, Googling
yourself.
3 - BROADCASTING
The need to perform to feel accepted
and appreciated by our online
communities.
Showing both who we are and what we
stand for in descriptions, conversations,
profile pictures, albums, check-ins,
advocacies, updates, blog posts.
2 - CONFIDENTIALITY
The need to feel in control of one’s
identity, personal data and information.
Picking and changing passwords,
adapting privacy settings to specific
networks and audience, managing how
one’s image and reputation is displayed
by others in pictures, conversations,
updates.
1 - ACCESSIBILITY
The need to acquire the basic set of
skills and markers, indispensable to start
existing and interacting in the digital
realm.
Submitting to networks, picking a
screen name and an avatar, learning
the language and etiquette of a specific
platform.
25. 44 45
CONCLUSION
So far the industry has been telling
us frantically to join the conversation,
otherwise we have no chance of
becoming a ‘social’ success. As
good students we have been taking
this very seriously, setting up fan
pages, Twitter accounts and doing
as much as possible to make new
FRIENDS and FOLLOWERS. While
we can commend some of these
creative efforts, many clearly have no
rhyme or reason for their existence.
Sure, they may have been created
on the back of a great instinct, and
accumulated some 10’000 fans, but
to what end?
Can we really guarantee that our
new friends are more loyal than our
real life consumers? Or that they
won’t be easily deterred by other
brand attempts at ego boosting
digital candy. The real challenge in
social media is not about emerging
in the ocean of babble, but about
seducing the Social Super Ego. As
we have seen for the last 20 pages,
this is not a random psychological
phenomenon, but a real character
that comes to the fore in our online
lives, with survival mechanics and
complex needs of its own.
While social networks have
undoubtedly given us endless
possibilities to make connections
with people we never would have
dreamt of, the rules for friendship
never change.
It happens out of a real sense
of complicity, and the desire to
explore the other in all his/ her
different dimensions. The next
exciting challenge will be to look
inside ourselves as brands and see
whether the role we have chosen
to play online is sufficiently in sync
and attractive enough for the Social
Super Ego…
Forget the misconceptions about
influence: it’s now everywhere,
anytime and can emanate from
anybody. Learn to distinguish the
different levels of influence: someone
with a 500K uv/ month and 10’000
followers might be a social outcast in
real life, and real life influencers might
not even have a Facebook account.
Don’t be afraid to look beyond blogs
and Twitter. Other platforms such
as foursquare, social shopping sites,
and even casual social games can
all contain influencers with massive
reach.
3
Identify the
real origins
of influence
Action Points:
1. Do not rely on ready-made
directories to identify influencers
such as bloggers.
2. Use proved tools such as SM2
to identify the volume and sources
of noise around your brand,
whatever the network.
3. Do some hands-on research on
selected networks, experience will
tell you who’s a reference in such
or such domain.
26. 46 47
Bibliography Acknowledgements
«Your life torn Open, Essay 2:
Zukerberg’s next move»
Steven Johnson - feb 3, 2011.
wired.co.uk
«Facebook, Le Reseau Antisocial»
Libby Copeland - jan 26, 2011.
Slate.fr
Why youth love social Network
sites: The Role of Networked
Publics in Teenage social life.
Dana Boyd
University of California, Berkeley, School
of Information.
User descriptions
and Interpretations of
self-presentation through
Facebook profile images.
Michele M. Strano
Bridgewater College, Virginia.
Self-presentation 2.0: Narcissism
and self esteem on Facebook.
Soraya Mehdizadeh- B. Sc.
York University Toronto Canada.
I tweet honestly, I tweet
passionately: Twitter users,
context collapse, and the
imagined audience.
Alice E. Marwick
New York University
Authors:
Sarah Jane Blackman is a Senior
Digital Planner at Proximity Paris,
with a passion for big questions and
digital creativity.
blackmans@proximity.bbdo.fr
Pierre-Jean Choquelle is a
Generation Y certified digital planner
at Proximity Paris.
You can check out his geeky stream
of consciousness at Twitter.com/fouapa
Design:
Nicolas Baumgartner at Proximity
Paris.
A big thankyou to:
Reza Ghaem-Maghami,
and the Paris planning team for their
encouragement and support during
this project.
Identity Construction and Self
Representation on Facebook.
Renee Estoisia, Neema Pithia,
Claudia Rodriquez, Teresa Yu.
Anthropology 128C
Professor T. D. Boellstorff
- March 19, 2009.
«I tweet therefore I am»
Peggy Orenstein - july 30, 2010.
newyorktimes.com
The presentation of self in every
day life.
Erving Goffman, 1959.
Alone Together. Why we expect
more from technology and less
from eachother.
Sherry Turkle - jan 11, 2011
Basics Books
Virtually You: The Dangerous
Powers of the E-Personality.
Elias Aboujaoude - 2011
27. 48 49
Links
We’ve tried hard to describe our diferent examples in the simplest way as
possible but here is a list of links that’ll feed your apetite for details, neatly
arranged for your delight.
• 10 creative uses of the new Facebook profile
http://on.mash.to/ejyhfn
• photofunia
http://photofunia.com
• twibbon
http://twibbon.com
• myspace angles, know your meme
http://bit.ly/dDk1l7
• Don’t be ugly by accident, Ok Trends
http://bit.ly/czjvur
• A graphic guide to Facebook Portrait, Fastcompany
http://bit.ly/a2dVvL
• instagram
http://instagr.am
• go try it on
http://www.gotryiton.com
• fashism
http://www.fashism.com
• Skoda, The more you like, the less you pay
http://bit.ly/b6yEs9
• Foursquare
http://foursquare.com
• Getglue
http://getglue.com
• Scoop.it
http://www.scoop.it
• Introducing Mashable follow
http://on.mash.to/dKbx3a
• Flipboard
http://flipboard.com
• Postpost
http://www.postpost.com
• Paper.li
http://paper.li
• Polyvore
http://www.polyvore.com
• klout
http://klout.com
• epenis
http://www.epenis.nl
• Youtube sensation Blair Fowler aka Juicystar07
http://www.youtube.com/user/juicystar07
• vyou
http://vyou.com
• quora
http://www.quora.com
• flavors.me
http://flavors.me
• dating brian
http://datingbrian.com
• Céline Cavaillero’s Resume
http://www.celineislookingforafashionjob.com
• yearbook yourself
http://www.yearbookyourself.com
• Mad men yourself
http://bit.ly/59sii
• Androidify
http://androidify.com
• Schweppes profile maker
http://on.fb.me/i5E5FQ
• La redoute PDS
http://bit.ly/hxAnag
• Diesel I have never
http://bit.ly/fnPlXA
28. 50 51
• Vaio Media Monsters War
http://bit.ly/biUHBY
• Pirates des Caraibes : capitaine !
http://on.fb.me/edp5pG
• Facebook book Bouygues Telecom
http://vimeo.com/18877919
• Twitter parade
http://isparade.jp
• Sour Mirror interactive music video
http://sour-mirror.jp
• Benetton it’s : my : time
http://casting.benetton.com
• Oreo itl fan of the week
http://bit.ly/hWoQAz
• Top 10 Old Spice video response
http://on.mash.to/aafpwa
• BK Whopperface case study
http://bit.ly/9ev3JM
• Klm surprise case study
http://bit.ly/dNBOji
• One Million Heineken hugs
http://bit.ly/fzgIjx
• Porsche, Thank You a million times
http://bit.ly/dE44vq
• Uniqlooks
http://uniqlooks.uniqlo.com
• LOL project
http://bit.ly/bwi2PL
• Grammy’s we’re all fans
http://wereallfans.com
• Together Incredible : Orcon case study
http://bit.ly/4f9flA
• Burton’s Cadavre Exquis
http://www.burtonstory.com
• Gorillaz The Evangelist
http://gorillaz.com/evangelist
• Pepsi Refresh project
http://www.refresheverything.com
• My Starbucks idea
http://mystarbucksidea.force.com