Spun Digital - Finding customers online

Removing social media anonymity allows marketers to glean a more accurate portrayal of their customers' personalities, it has been claimed.

In an article on the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), Jack Wallington indicates that social media had suffered from the problem of anonymity in the past, in that people often behave a lot less like themselves when they do not need to reveal their identity.

He explained that the removal of anonymity on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn "means users are a more accurate portrayal of their genuine personality".

However, he noted that there is a disparity between what many community managers call opinion formers online and who shapes opinions offline, which makes internet marketing using social media altogether more exciting.

Recent research by Ofcom indicated that the number of adults signing up to social networking sites has almost doubled in the last two years, which will no doubt be of interest to social media marketers.