Personas in the Age of Social Media

UPA 2012

Danielle Cooley @dgcooley

persona [per-soh-nuh]noun, plural personae, personas

Fictional character created to represent a specific user type …that might use a site, brand, or product in a similar way.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/personahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_(marketing)

Basically, an archetype of a user.

1999

1999 2012

?http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Persona+Format

Cooper, Alan. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum. 1999. Page 124.Cooper, Alan. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum. 1999. Page 128.Cooper, Alan. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum. 1999. Page 137.

Smith, Carol. Personas at Work. Slide 13. http://www.slideshare.net/carologic/personas-at-work T-shirt via http://parkavenuecoffee.com

• Research-based“We … discover them as a byproduct of the investigation process.”1

• Goal-focused“Personas are defined by their goals. Goals, of course, are defined by their personas.”1

• Detailed“We don’t just let Emilee drive to work. We give her a dark-blue 1991 Toyota Camry, with a gray plastic kid’s seat strapped into the back and an ugly scrape on the rear bumper.”2

• Few“If we find more than three primary personas, it means that our problem set is too large…”3

• Not reusableDifferent personas use different product features.4

Junk drawer photo via Creative Commons license from flickr user puuikibeach.

Integration with other social media tools is revealing.

Profile photo is familiar. Cover photo

adds richness.

Includes specifics about education, employment, and

relationship status.

Hobbies and personal interests can be reflected in

status updates.

Friends | Photos | Maps | Likessection provides insight

into the persona.

“Likes” section in the body of the timeline shows more

detail.

Don’t forget about the ads!

Facebook Ads

Geography Politics Employment

Hobbies Gender

Great! Let’s create an account…

Goals

About

Timeline

• 186 layers• 30 (or more) images

http://www.sxc.hu/

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/facebook-begins-testing-redesigned-timeline-view

And then…

22 layers

Δ= 52

30 layers

31 layers

Δ= 42

26 layers

#%^&^$@(*!

Twitter, on the other hand…

@JustWilma photo via creative commons license from flickr user Alaskan Dude.@RedheadRockStar photo courtesy of twitter user @ElisaRockDoc.

@JustWilma @RedheadRockStar

EmploymentPoliticsGeography

Hobbies Gender

Rock Star. Gamer.

?

http://facebookpersona.notlong.com/