What to Tell About Me? Self-Presentation in Online Communities

Abstract

Managing self-presentation in online communities is an integral part of private and professional life. In member profiles on social networking sites such as Facebook, people disclose intimate details that deliver a rich picture of their personality and tell stories about recent activities with colleagues, family, and friends. In communities such as Wikipedia, people selectively present personal information that is related to their effort within the community, for example, information about their interests, expertise, or professional activities. Finally, online self-presentation enables initiation of interaction, building relationships, and access to knowledge resources. The kind of personal information people present about themselves differs to a high degree between communities (Le, Beschastnikh, & McDonald, 2010;Schrammel, Köffel, & Tscheligi, 2009). Nevertheless, we do not know much about the factors that explain these differences. Are differences in self-presentation just a consequence of different opportunities to present oneself through predefined profile fields? Indeed, profiles in different communities vary in layout, content, and format. However, communities also support different kinds of interactions among their members: Social networking sites, on the one hand, support getting and staying in contact with family, friends, and colleagues. Communities focusing on content creation, on the other hand, support sharing and developing knowledge and ideas. This paper investigates whether people adapt their self-presentation in online communities to different interaction situations, independent of the profile template the community offers. For this purpose, we build on the theoretical distinction between common-bond and common-identity groups

Self-presentation and hiring recommendations in online communities: Lessons from LinkedIn

“…However, the willingness to provide personal information in member profiles on these SNSs is generally high because members gain acceptance through extensive self-presentation that facilitates the establishment of relationships with other network members (Schwämmlein & Wodzicki, 2012).…”

“…Although self-presentation in online communities has been previously examined (e.g., Birnbaum, 2013;DeAndrea & Walther, 2011;Labrecque, Markos, & Milne, 2011;Schwämmlein & Wodzicki, 2012), job seeking within online communities is qualitatively different from many other online settings because of the anticipation of face-to-face job interviews (Jansen, König, Stadelmann, & Kleinmann, 2012) and the social script (Gioia & Poole, 1984) for the hiring process in this context.…”

Social Media, Friendship, and Happiness in the Millennial Generation

“…Social grooming is about the individual nurturing their social connections through online exchanges, navigating through the announcements and photos friends post, and maintaining a personal reputation via the digital residue of those network excursions. Communications on social networking sites often reference the self, in contrast to communications addressing a superordinate group's goals and interests, which are more common in online content communities such as Wikipedia (Schwammlein and Wodzicki 2012). Essentially, social networking sites emphasize individuals as the center of their social worlds, managing their connections, expressing themselves to their audiences of friends, and embarking on personalized expeditions through vast landscapes of gossip and social information.…”

Bumper Stickers on the Twitter Highway: Analyzing the Speed and Substance of Profile Changes

“…Social media profiles matter because they represent attempts to portray oneself in a way that facilitates relationship cultivation with desired audiences (Schwämmlein and Wodzicki 2012). People define who they are on social media in salient ways through the information they include in their profiles.…”