I’ve come across a term which seems to adequately describe our collective experience of transitioning into a society where one’s authentic self is sheared off unto a series of mostly online, profiles. That term is Profilicity; briefly, it’s the cultivation of one’s identity via the ongoing curation of a profile of one form or another. The most obvious example would be a social media profile, but it goes beyond that; consider one’s CV or résumé. Or perhaps it’s the carefully crafted Memoji and other digital icons used with our communication devices to make us more easily recognized while texting, DMing or posting (again; usually, but not aways, on a profile of some sort — perhaps it’s a review, that counts too).
In my recent experiences I’ve encountered people extolling the virtues of a new Authenticity. But perhaps that’s not quite the case, rather than authentic behavior (usually online) I’ve begun to wonder if it’s instead a call for civility. I’ve seen the term Rawthenticity proposed for describing this desire but that term has its own entanglements. I wonder if an alternative neologism might do. Would Curateous work instead?
Curate + Courteous: a method or priority for courtesy in the curating of one’s profile. This is not to discount authentic behavior in cultivating one’s profile – it’s meant to retain the understanding that interactions between profiles contains a lot of deliberate effort. Besides, some people can be authentic jerks and it’s a rare individual or talent which can make a popular profile from that.
It’s that need for constant maintenance which demarcates a most significant difference between Authenticity and Profilicity. There are quite a few, some are contradictory but for the purposes of this essay we are considering what practices might be best for maintaining/curating a profile appealing to others for engagement. A profile still reflective of who one wants to be and how they’d like to be received.
For your consideration
What follows are potential ways of maximizing one’s efforts in profile curation. It may seem daunting at the beginning of such an effort. It may be that you’ll have to generate a bit of content to deliver at first. But here are some guidelines to keep in mind.
When Possible Creatively Use Prexisting Material: Authenticity often demands originality, the words are nearly synonymous. Not as necessary in profile curation, there’s no one individual observer who may notice a repeated image or bit of writing. Our profile is being presented to a general peer and can bear repeated content. It may even benefit from it.
Develop Good Habits: As you get into the rhythm of curating, it’s important to reduce distractions and stay focused on a specific goal. Start with broad strokes, much like “gesture drawing,” and then narrow your focus as you hone in on your vision/message.
Incorporate Practical Strategies: Enhance your curation skills by leveraging social media apps, understanding which platforms are best for certain types of data, and making the most of unique app features.
A Theory on self-promotion
Begin with the idea that everyone is involved with their own subject of focus.
- No-one sees the thing you do.
- No-one clicks on things you are doing.
- Few care about anything you do.
Even when people want to follow up with you, they often don’t – it’s easy for time to slip away and doing it later can easily become never got around to it. Meditating on this idea can break down one’s expectations, leaving room to build something new. That begins with the acceptance that of a potential eight billion people— some just may have similar interests to yours.
Thanks to our collective capitalist conditioning, it’s likely that if you show people something that interests them, a few (1-2%) will pay for it. If you gather enough people who care about the same things you do and make something that tickles that interest, then you can anticipate a measure of success for that creation. It’s been said to me that 80% of that financial success will come from 20% of these people.
If nobody engages with you, it means you haven’t done a good job finding those who care.
If nobody buys from you, it means you haven’t made something enough people care about or you have gathered the wrong people.
If you aren’t where you want to be:
- Find more people (outbound marketing)
- Make your project better aligned with your perfect customer (branding)
- Make people understand the value of what you have (sales)
- Get people who love your work to buy again (customer satisfaction)
- Make things more aligned with your audience’s needs (R&D)
The more of those you can achieve the greater the likeliness of drawing profit or opportunity form the endeavor.
Four Channels for Marketing
There are four marketing channels one must keep in mind. Being excellent at one can help you build a marketable profile. It doesn’t matter which one, but it may be better to master one than be merely good at all four.
Owned – Your own website, podcast, blog, community, store, newsletter, etc.
This is the domain of SEO and branding.
Paid – Any kind of advertising.
Earned – Anything PR and publicity related, including guest blogging and testimonials.
Borrowed – Social media and going viral on platforms you build a profile on but don’t own.
Inside each channel there are dozens of strategies that might work, but that’s most of the broad strokes. You might have noticed how little of this is about you. An advantage of Profilicity which authenticity does not have. Succeeding on this front is all about what you can do for the person engaging with you instead – even if that person is actually really just another profile.
The better you are at making them feel seen and showing the value they will find in your work, the more you will succeed.
Stray Thoughts on Blogging vs. Newsletters
Blogs and newsletters are both written content. And there are two types of written content:
- Evergreen: Will be relevant months or even years from now
- Timely: Related to trends, news, or current events (and will soon be irrelevant)
For timely newsletters, one might have to make an extra effort to publish them on a website. Some tools like Ghost, Substack, & Beehiiv offer the option to publish an online and newsletter version simultaneously. But for timely content, deriving a long-tail benefit to publishing that writing on a website will require some creativity.
For evergreen writing, publishing on a website you own is ideal.
The best of such writing leaves an impression on us. That makes it worth sharing and returning to. As time passes, it may become harder to remember certain details about the writing, including its title. If someone remembers what you wrote and wants to share or revisit it, they’ll either Google any details they remember, if they remember your name, they may search your website. But most of the time, to get an exact quote or a link to share; One will Google it. So having a published copy available to search engines even if not readily available to the casual browser could yield benefits of their own. Another Avenue of research for me to wander down at some point.