“My foster parents told me that I could be anything I wanted to so I became me.” - Mickey Avalon
So the Kathy Sierra maelstrom online over the last two days came across like a feeding frenzy of angst and pent up fear. Seems to me as if a whole lotta’ emotion got spilled and sloshed about. All in all, I guess the world is a better place. I didn’t lose any sleep over it, yet my hair continues to fall out…
I’m sure a lot of “Mean People Suck” bumper stickers have been sold this week. Many people–especially the blogosphere–are a little tighter. A few more will rethink the degree they tweak out on each other. A little mob effect I guess is a good thing from time to time. At the end of the day, Kathy got terrified…freaked out. Any one of us — if we could –would easily assist in shutting down the dumbasses involve. Hate speech isn’t free…
So this got me thinking about anonymity. I made a false start at blogging back in 1999. While it felt right at the time to be as transparent as I am today, the conventional wisdom from which I was mentored from in traditional marketing/advertising/branding was very control-oriented and this presented a conundrum for me: Would business leaders take a personal brand seriously if they knew the “real me”?
Conventional wisdom then was tight. Very tight. Folks like Dave Winer and Justin Hall inspired me by jumping out early. Fray was waaaaay ahead of its time. The Web’s first digital storytelling site. I remember going out to Dana Atchley’s Digital Story Telling Festival back in my hometown of Crested Butte every summer between 1996 and 1999 and meeting folks like Magdalena Donea and Justin Hall and thinking, “Wow…these folks are way ahead of the curve!” Yes they were…and still are I guess. (Thankfully Mike Bonifer has returned to my life…more about that later…)
So as much as I identified with Justin Hall back then, my business frame of reference left me thinking that the only way I could weblog (as it was called then) was to do it anonymously. That just has never worked for me since the 8th grade when I found some identity to hold on to and never looked back. Voted “Most Unique” in my class…which is the polite way of saying “one weird dude that does not fit in” I guess…
Anonymous has never been me. Anonymous to me has always meant hiding. I’ve always been the center of jokes, the guy everyone makes fun of. I enjoy it. I’ll pick up on a theme that gets people talking and play with it. Presently I’ve been drinking fruity martini’s (Cosmo’s in particular) and that’s got my entire base of friends harassing me constantly. At least they think of me 
That said, I see plenty of great “case-studies” of where anonymity is effective online. Sometimes what needs ot be said can’t be said any other way but anonymous. Or an anonymous brand is better that a real personal one. (Superman v. Clark Kent). Seems like most folks are keen to be anonymous.
Our own local blogger-herione-media-maven Myrna the Minx is anonymous. I have absolutely no idea who she is. And, in general, I dont really care. I’d like to secretly know…but that’s purely to mess with Robert and Josh’s heads. Her anonymity is an effective part of her brand and lets her get away with things that I could never ever write. She’s effective at rattling everyone to keep herself relevant and on the minds of the northern Nevaday bogoshphere. At least she does it with taste and style. I may not always agree with her, but I appreciate her effectivemenss at building a brand by it. Even the Jerz v. Myrna banter seems almost approaching a contrived setup to keep me reading.
Anonymous posters without a brand are just ultimately ineffective and waste our time. Kind of like the dudes that scream, “Hey, if you got something to say, come and say it to my face!” as they speed out of the parking lot in their car away from the bar. I delete most anonymous comments except for my friends ’cause I know who they are — even if they’re too wuss to put their real names down. Doctors and lawyers are seem to be the biggest wusses online.
So with transparency comes an equal a responsibility of restraint. Fortunately I’m not a complaining bitter old spice wearing kind of conservative baby boomer or a patchouli smelling meadow muffin whiny liberal looking to bitch and moan all the time. I’m just me.
Technorati tags: anonymity anonymous blogging kathy sierra kathysierra personal branding personalbranding privacy transparent transparency
