Dealing with 'Online-Multiple Personality Disorder'

Transitioning into a career as a copywriter for a leading-edge SEO firm in 2008, with virtually no knowledge of Internet marketing besides the sponsored ads that come up on Google’s search results page, my digital ‘workspace’ soon became as messy as the admittedly untidy lawyer’s office I had recently vacated. My shiny new Apple desktop was very quickly as cluttered with the articles and blog entries I had written, the links, news stories and websites I needed for future research, and a bunch of programs I had little or no understanding of, as my old veneered desktop had been.

Worse yet, I had very limited time using an Apple platform. . . . Still worse, the more I wrote and published on the web, the more mixed-up I became with the name and byline I was writing under. I was suffering from an ‘online multiple-personalities disorder.’

Doing a Google search on my own name – and which narcissistic writer hasn’t done that? – I was shocked and discomfited to find out that in a matter of weeks I now seemed to be an ‘authority’ on digital signage, computer rentals, real estate, mortgages and sundry matters, as well as a smattering of legal subjects from my previous job.

Organize Online Personas

There is a lot of information about (and some great tools for) managing your online persona, or multiple personas – personae, if you prefer, and are a Latin scholar. Not knowing this, there were multiple hits on all varieties of my given and surnames (first initial, given and surname, initial and surname; given name and surname; etc.). Still more confusingly, I had also published material on these same and other sites with one or more aliases. I had become a “virtual Cybil.” My boss eventually had to help me semi-straighten it all up with a healthy dose of Excel spread sheets.

Now, freelancing for the same guys that introduced me to search engine optimization – which is what SEO stands for, as was explained to me at my first interview – and with several blogs I do for fun, giggles and inspiration, I try to strictly separate my multiple online personalities. One silo, with one online persona, for the people I write for professionally; one silo, with another persona based on my nickname from high school, for the blogs I write for inspiration; a further silo, with my all-time-favorite online split-personality: “Wm. Shakesheade,” who is ‘more bored than bard.’

The best method I have found to keep my ‘online multiple-personalities disorder’ under check – other than the Excel worksheets I use to track who I am, what is where, and which passwords I need to use – is the creative use of ‘avatars.’ There are a ton of sites that offer avatar creation and management tools, including Meez.com. Second Life and Gravatar, which is the site I now use. Tech blog, Mashable.com, offers a very good synopsis and review of top avatar sites.

Manage Avatars

There are any number of twists on the creation and use of Avatars – you can upload and use actual photos of yourself (which I shy away from, except on Facebook and a couple of other trusted social media sites). You can also use a pick-your-own avatar from a stock of images available on the site, Alternatively, you can upload your own creation or a photo that captures the essence of who you are, or wish to be. (Flickr.com is still my go-to source for stock photos and images.)

Unless you are trying to brand yourself commercially as an ‘authority’ on a particular area of interest (and even if you are, but do not care whether this is a ‘personal brand’ or a branded pseudonym), judicious use of what and where you publish online, along with the consistent use of a good avatar . . . and Excel spread sheets . . . can help you avoid or cure your own case of ‘online multiple-personality disorder.’

Do not, however, under any circumstances, forget the caveat I always toss out to my social media-obsessed daughter: “