Identity Construction - Creation Of Your Professional Self

So literally up until last night I hadn't considered social media in a professional sense. You know that scene in the Matrix where Morpheus does "The Jump" and Neo has his "Whoa" moment, suddenly realising all his preconceived beliefs about gravity and the world were nonsense? It was something like that. That's an odd statement in itself so I'll try and explain.

I am acutely aware that social media is an excellent way in which to boost your profile, advertise and keep in touch people that are interested in what you're doing. For years I have done it with bands I have been in but that's so different to doing it personally and professionally. With bands there's a level of personal anonymity with your social media presence. With anything that you post or any interaction that you make with your fans there's this wall that is the band itself between you and the reader. An identity and persona of sorts is created for the band that is used to represent the collective group behind it, not one individual.

That's kind of the limit of my social media and identity creation experience. Honestly I don't even do that much posting on my bands page anyway, that job is owned by another member. Up until recently I had been off Instagram for a few years, I don't use Twitter, no Snap Chat. Facebook is pretty important to me though. I don't post a lot of photos and statuses, it's more a means to keep in contact with folks, keep up to date with bands and also act as an admin on my band's Facebook account. It's also how I stay up to date with news of the world because newspapers are somewhat redundant these days and I don't own a TV. So this concept of identity creation through social media even on a personal level is sort of foreign.

Back to the "whoa" moment. So I was tracking drums with a friend last night and thought "I guess I better take a picture for Instagram". It was really strange moment because it was the very first time I have posted something online with the intent of it being considered in a professional sense. I have posted lots of photos of me doing music things over the years but never with the intent of them being received and digested professionally. Up until recently doing music stuff was for personal enjoyment and in the act of taking one picture it suddenly became work. It's one thing to have the importance and intricacies of social media explained to you in a lecture at uni, it's whole new experience to actually participate in it.

In the same moment it sort of dawned on me that this concept of identity creation through social media is something that I am going to have to work on just as much getting that perfect kick drum sound. As I mentioned earlier I fully understand the power of social media's promotional capabilities but it's this concept of professional identity creation that is so new to me. Social media has suddenly gone from something I use to kill time on public transport to a tool that will be instrumental in how successful my career will be. So there are all these new considerations. When I go to post a picture or write something now, is it personal or is it professional? If it's personal I have to not only think about whether it's appropriate for my parents to see but also an employer. If it's professional how do I use it to help sculpt my professional identity?

It's safe to say that my understanding of social media has been absolutely flipped on it's head. Also see the above picture with the tastefully applied Instagram filter that started this whole thing.