Balancing Multiple Online Personas
May 28, 2025
By: Zara Iftikhar, Seasonal Public Relations Intern | Digital4Good
Why do we create multiple personas? In this age and time everything has become digitized, and we show who we are using different social media platforms. Although, depending on the platform, we only show certain aspects of our persona. For Example, with LinkedIn we show our most polished selves while on Facebook, we show a more casual perspective of our life and personality.
Why Do We Create Multiple Personas?
Professional
Professional personas assist us in establishing credibility. In professional settings we show our skills, achievements and experiences. This would be a polished set up with online reliable information about the person in a workplace setting.
When using platforms such as LinkedIn, which are tailored for this purpose, this opens the doors for networking with industry peers, mentors and potential employers.
Often, we are told by career advisors that creating an online professional persona can help grow your career. These professional personas allow you to highlight your qualifications and accomplishments, which in this competitive market would be the key for making you an attractive candidate to recruiters.
In this setting you will be able to share your work, such as articles, blogs and projects, which can demonstrate your expertise. This would be a way to increase engagement and consulting opportunities.
You need to be upfront, show transparency when you create your separate personas, as deceiving people is ethically wrong. Protection of your personal information is in your hand, just share what you feel like you can share, online actions have real word consequences.
To stay updated on the industry you want to work in, creating a professional persona would be helpful, because engaging and following with relevant professionals can help you stay informed.
Personal
A personal persona is more laid back and focuses on our daily lives. For example, our personal interests and daily interactions. This type of persona is often found in platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc.
We do this primarily to express ourselves and to feel socially connected.
We like to express ourselves, through hobbies, activities, and experiences. Hoping that through throwing ourselves out in the world, maybe someone will be able to connect with us.
Additionally, personas are a great way to stay connected with family and friends. These platforms are designed to keep connections with our close ones by keeping them updated through photos and messages. When starting a new adventure or hobby or showcasing your cooking skills, the internet is a great place to update your journey. Many people use online personas as a tool to document their life, while creating a permanent diary.
Challenges of Different Personas management
The hectic life of a person causes them to have conflicts managing and giving time to the persona they have created.
Time Management
To be able to smoothly keep your online persona, you need to give it time and effort, such as taking your time to update and engage with the profiles, which can be time consuming as you would need to tailor each post. It would be recommended to give time each day for a special post.
Consistency and Authenticity
Maintaining a consistent presence can be hard, because every platform has its own audience, this can cause complications in keeping reality and staying true to oneself, as when we see people who are doing better than us, our mind feels like showing a similar side, creating a whole new personality, blurring the lines of reality.
Privacy and Security
The risk of privacy breaches is high, using strong passwords, enabling two-factor authentication and keeping your information safe is needed to be able to keep all the information safe.
Mental Strain
Creating multiple personas and keeping them updated can take a toll on a person's mental health. When trying to show the best version of yourself and not achieving what you want or comparing yourself to other people, you can feel burnout and stress. Constantly curating your image to fit external expectations can cause you to feel disconnected from your true self. To overcome this you should always try to take mental health breaks.
Strategies for Balancing Multiple Online Personas
To be able to create a balance and harmony, You need to define your personas.
Professional Persona
This persona is used to focus on the professional part of one’s life, sharing career achievements, networking with professionals and posting relevant content.
Personal Persona
You can share your life updates, connecting with family and friends and posting interesting things about yourself.
Public Persona
If you are a public figure, a public persona would be the one that resonates with the people who follow you.
Clear boundaries for what you want to post and what belongs to each persona needs to be established, by doing this you can maintain a different aspect of your life. Keeping authenticity is important too, tailoring your content is different but staying true to yourself is too, sharing a genuine side can reflect who you are. Your online persona should reflect your true self, your core values, and your unique voice.
Actions Students and Educators Can Take
Teaching students and educators about digital footprints and how what they do online can leave a long term impact. Emphasize the importance of how to manage your online personas. Encouraging positivity and highlighting how important it is to be kind and respectful in personal and professional interactions.
When you are navigating digitally, evaluate that and manage your personas, you need to find a balance and be true to yourself.
Digital4Good has blogs that would help in educating and teaching you about digital life such as Social Media & Relationships: Balancing Digital Life.
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