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We Are What We Post? Self-Presentation in Personal Web Space

Article  in  Journal of Consumer Research · December 2003

DOI: 10.1086/378616

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We Are What We Post? Self-Presentation in
Personal Web Space
HOPE JENSEN SCHAU
MARY C. GILLY*

This article examines personal Web sites as a conspicuous form of consumer self-
presentation. Using theories of self-presentation, possessions, and computer-medi-
ated environments (CMEs), we investigate the ways in which consumers construct
identities by digitally associating themselves with signs, symbols, material objects,
and places. Specifically, the issues of interest include why consumers create personal
Web sites, what consumers want to communicate, what strategies they devise to
achieve their goal of self-presentation, and how those Web space strategies compare
to the self-presentation strategies of real life (RL). The data reveal insights into the
strategies behind constructing a digital self, projecting a digital likeness, digitally
associating as a new form of possession, and reorganizing linear narrative structures.

C onsumption can be a self-defining and self-expressive

behavior. People often choose products and brands that
are self-relevant and communicate a given identity: “Con-
sumption serves to produce a desired self through the images
and styles conveyed through one’s possessions” (Thompson
and Hirschman 1995, p. 151). In this way consumers make
their identities tangible, or self-present, by associating them-
selves with material objects and places. Although consumer
researchers have included symbols and signs in the set of
objects and materiality they study (Mick 1986), even these
symbols often refer to physical objects or places. With the
advent of new technology, computer-mediated environments
(CMEs) have emerged, allowing virtual worlds in which
consumers can present themselves using digital rather than
physical referents.
The CMEs are virtual digital places that occupy neither
space nor time. They are inherently discursive spaces where
people actively convene to commune with others (Kozinets
1998, 1999, 2002b). Within these digital environments, peo-
ple interact to work, shop, learn, entertain, and be entertained
(Weiss 2001). Electronic meeting rooms/stores/malls (Alba
et al. 1997), teleconferencing, and streaming technology are
increasingly supplementing, and in some cases replacing,
*Hope Jensen Schau is assistant professor of marketing, Fox School of
Business and Management, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122 (e-
mail: hope.schau@temple.edu). Mary C. Gilly is professor of marketing,
Graduate School of Management, University of California, Irvine, CA
92697 (e-mail: mcgilly@uci.edu). The authors acknowledge the many help-
ful suggestions of the editor, associate editor, and the reviewers. The article
also benefited from the comments provided by Robert Kozinets, Albert
Muniz, Jr., Michael F. Smith, and Mary Wolfinbarger on earlier drafts of
the article. This work evolved from the first author’s dissertation, which
was supervised by the second author and by Alladi Venkatesh.
385
social and market interactions formerly conducted in real
time between individuals in the same location (Armstrong
and Hagel 1996; Venkatesh 1998). Through CMEs, con-
sumers have increased access to semiotic tools, cultural ar-
tifacts, and modes of expression (Appadurai 1996). Druck-
ery (1996, p. 12) proclaims that CMEs “collapse the border
between material and immaterial, the real and the possible,”
rendering these distinctions irrelevant. Similarly, Rifkin
(2000) asserts that, as these distinctions erode, imagination
has greater value than physical capital.
As Mick and Fournier (1998, p. 123) note, “No one eludes
technology.” With the expanding reach of the Internet, the
broadening of bandwidth, and the development of easy-to-
use site creation software, an increasing number of consum-
ers are homesteading on the Net by staking claim to these
digital environments (Rheingold 1993). The actual number
of personal Web sites in existence is unknown because per-
sonal Web sites are hosted on many different Internet re-
sources, including commercial, governmental, and educa-
tional Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Further complicating
matters, individual consumers can post multiple and often
interlocking Web sites. No definitive statistic is available
for the number of personal Web sites, but Killoran (1999)
estimates a total of 70 million American Internet users, 6%
of whom posted personal home pages. Thus, more than 4
million Americans posted personal Web sites in 1999. Amer-
ica Online, the nation’s largest online service, estimates that
two years later there were 11 million pages within AOL
Hometown, and thousands more are created daily (Munro
2001).
Clearly, consumers are authoring and posting personal
Web sites and communicating through symbolic, digital
stimuli. Personal Web space affords consumers the oppor-

䉷 2003 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc. ● Vol. 30 ● December 2003

All rights reserved. 0093-5301/2004/3003-0005$10.00
386 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

tunity to construct digital collages using symbols and signs
to represent and express their self-concepts (see fig. 1 for a
sample personal Web site). Consumers who create personal
Web sites are engaging in what Arnould and Price (2000,
p. 140) call “authenticating acts,” or “self-referential be-
haviors actors feel reveal the ‘true’ self” and frequently
multiple true selves.
Limited only by their own imaginations and technology
access, the participants of digital environments may create
multiple identities through digital appropriation and manip-
ulation of text, images, icons, and hyperlinks to other Web
sites (Nguyen and Alexander 1996). These digital selves
may, but need not, relate to one another or correspond to
identities of real life (RL) (Cheung 2000; Turkle 1995; Wynn
and Katz 1997). As in the material world, digital self-pre-
sentation often relies on commercial referents. Unhinged
from the material constraints of the physical body, owner-
ship, and proximity, these new modes of consumer self-
expression reveal innovative self-presentation strategies that
inform the discourse on self-presentation and possessions.
The purpose of this research is to extend our knowledge
of consumer self-presentation by examining how and why
it occupies personal Web space. If “we are what we have”
(Belk 1988, p. 160) and “I link, therefore, I am” (Hafner
1999, p. 1), does it follow that we are what we post? This
research uses a sociocultural notion of consumption, focus-
ing on how consumers transform goods into possessions and
symbols into personal expressions (Strathern 1994).
This article continues with the conceptual framework, re-
viewing and drawing upon the literature on self-presentation,

FIGURE 1

EXAMPLE OF A PERSONAL WEB SITE AND ITS CONTENTS

SELF-PRESENTATION IN PERSONAL WEB SPACE
possessions, and CMEs. Following the conceptual frame-
work, the methodology is described, including the nature of
the data and analysis protocol. Immediately following the
methodology, we present our findings regarding the follow-
ing research questions: (1) why do consumers create per-
sonal Web sites? (2) what do consumers want to commu-
nicate through them? and (3) what strategies do consumers
devise to achieve self-presentation objectives in this format?
The discussion section answers the additional question, (4)
how are strategies used within personal Web space similar
or different from self-presentation strategies that consumers
use in RL? Finally, the implications for future research are
discussed.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Personal Web sites serve no other purpose than com-
munication with known and unknown others. As such, the
literature on self-presentation suggests answers to the ques-
tions of why consumers create Web sites and what they may
want to communicate.
The Presentation of Self
Self-presentation as conceptualized here builds on Goff-
man’s (1959) theories of identity and social performance.
Goffman’s thesis is that self-presentation is the intentional
and tangible component of identity. Social actors engage in
complex intraself negotiations to project a desired impression.
This impression is maintained through consistently perform-
ing coherent and complementary behaviors (Schlenker 1975,
1980; Schneider 1981). Goffman (1959) terms this process
impression management. Thus, impression management relies
on corporeal display, what Mauss (1973) labels body tech-
niques, to communicate the desired identity, or self. The social
actions required for self-presentation are consumption ori-
ented and depend upon individuals displaying signs, symbols,
brands, and practices to communicate the desired impression
(Williams and Bendelow 1998). The art of self-presentation
is both a manipulation of signs (Wiley 1994) and an embodied
representation and experience (Brewer 1998) to impart iden-
tity. Consumers self-present daily as they select clothes, hair-
styles, automobiles, logos, and so forth, to impress others in
any given context (a shopping mall, an opera). Goffman
(1959) asserts that the presentation of self is contextual, based
on a specific setting and facing a definable and anticipated
audience. By contrast, personal Web sites allow consumers
to self-present 24/7 beyond a regional setting to the virtual
world.
To date, the literature on consumption and identity has
yielded significant insights into consumption motives and
practices; however, identity per se may not be the subject
of these studies. Identities often consist of abstractions left
intangible by intention (we are what we choose not to have
by voluntary abstention), as a result of few resources (we
cannot afford to consume what would flesh out our iden-
tities), through denial (we choose not to reveal aspects of
identity to obscure their presence), or because the identities
387
are not prone to concrete expression (we cannot locate strat-
egies to express complex facets of our identities). Therefore,
previous studies of identity and consumption have addressed
self-presentation, a concrete subset of larger abstract iden-
tities. Personal Web space, with its limitless digital symbols,
may allow researchers a glimpse of the selves consumers
wish they had.
Identity is characterized by the tension between how a
person defines herself as an individual and how she connects
to others and social groups in affiliative relationships
(Kleine, Kleine, and Allen 1995). Individual identity is the
self as distinguished from others and unique. Possessions
reflect individual identity when they demonstrate a person’s
accomplishments, skills, tastes, or unique creative efforts
(McCracken 1988a; Schultz, Kleine, and Kernan 1989). Af-
filiative identity is important for situating the self within the
social world and for communicating identity to the intended
audience (peer group, government, descendants, etc.).
Where individual identity may be said to demonstrate “me,”
affiliative identity establishes “we.” Consumers use signs
and symbols to express both types of identities. Wearing of
vintage clothes that are one-of-a-kind establishes individual
identity while an official NFL team sweatshirt reflects a
desired affiliative identity. Arnould and Price (2000, p. 140)
describe the me/autonomous and we/affiliative phenomena
as “two primary drivers of consumer behavior.” It is ex-
pected that such drivers will underlie communication efforts
in personal Web sites.
Wiley (1994) describes identities as representing two sorts
of values: operating or ideal. Operating values are those that
are practiced by a given person or social group. These values
are manifest in everyday behaviors such as wearing a watch
and being prompt for appointments or carrying a cellular
phone and phoning ahead to arrange social engagements.
Ideal values are those that a given person or social group
aspire to have but may not be able to maintain in reality
(Goffman 1959). Examples of ideal values include consum-
ers who engage in nostalgia (Davis 1979), consumers who
self-present by immersing themselves in myth (Belk and
Costa 1998) or religion (O’Guinn and Belk 1989), and con-
sumers who participate in fantasy-based consumption com-
munities (Kozinets 1997, 2001). In essence, we may indeed
be what we have self-presented, but we are also a great deal
more. Web sites give consumers greater freedom to express
their identities through digital association rather than own-
ership or proximity. Thus, consumers’ ideal values may be
revealed more clearly in personal Web space than in RL.
Closely related to the concept of self-presentation is the
degree to which people make themselves vulnerable through
the social performance of identity. Self-disclosure, or the
propensity an individual has for revealing personal infor-
mation to others (Collins and Miller 1994; Derlega 1979),
relates to the content of self-presentation. Strategies of self-
presentation often revolve around repressing personal in-
formation or supplanting it with modified or fabricated de-
tails more congruent with a desired self (Berg and Derlega
1987; Kelly and McKillop 1996). Researchers like Moon
388
(1998, 2000) suggest that self-disclosure in CMEs is easier
for some people than self-disclosure to a physically nearby
person due to the pressure of social desirability. Thus, CMEs
as mediated communication may allow for more open self-
expression. Digital identity construction (Nguyen and Al-
exander 1996) makes it possible to express latent and nested
identities (Herb and Kaplan 1999) or to more fully disclose
aspects of the self that are difficult to represent physically.
Alternatively, CMEs also enable people to conceal aspects
of their selves that they find undesirable. Such attributes as
age, gender, and appearance are only revealed in CMEs to
the extent the individual chooses to share this information
with distant others.
The prominence of objects in RL self-expression suggests
that consumers may also digitally associate with objects in
cyberspace. The literature on the use of objects in self-
presentation indicates strategies consumers use to achieve
such objectives.
The Use of Possessions and Proximal Objects in
Self-Presentation
Scholars of human social behavior across disciplines have
theoretically asserted and empirically demonstrated that peo-
ple invest meanings in things. Prior research explains why
people attach such meaning to things (Richins 1994a, 1994b;
Wallendorf and Arnould 1988; Wallendorf, Belk, and Heis-
ley 1988) and suggests methods to calculate a given person’s
or society’s propensity to invest such meaning (Ball and
Tasaki 1992; Richins and Dawson 1992). The literature also
recommends how to measure the level of meaning for a
given object or symbol (Hirschman 1980). Echoing Levy’s
(1959) “Symbols for Sale” and later Mick’s (1986) “Con-
sumer Research and Semiotics,” Lury (1996, p. 1) states,
“One of the most important ways in which people relate to
each other socially is through the mediation of things.” Ob-
jects provide a medium of nonlinguistic communication
(McCracken 1988a) through which people articulate their
relationship to materiality and communicate their places
within the social world (Ames 1984). In personal Web space,
this relationship can be expressed in many more ways than
the possession and proximity of RL. The appropriation of
digital images and links to other Web sites offer consumers
more intricate communication options than have previously
been studied.
Consumers acquire and display possessions as tangible
symbols of identity (Dittmar and Pepper 1992). In fact, re-
searchers claim that the relationship between a person and
object is “never a two-way (person-thing), but always three-
way (person-thing-person)” (Belk 1988, p. 147). That is to
say, human-object relationships communicate between peo-
ple. In cyberspace, meaning is communicated far beyond
the people in proximity to the communicator; instead, the
world is watching. The underlying assumption is that, by
studying people’s possession portfolios, others gain access
to the possessor’s intangible self. Although this relationship
is most often positive, it has been argued to be indirectly
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
oppositional (e.g., I am in part defined by what I refrain
from purchasing; Englis and Solomon 1997) or directly op-
positional (e.g., I am a Pepsi drinker because I am not a
Coca-Cola consumer; Muniz and Hamer 2001).
The members of a given social group, subculture of con-
sumption (Schouten and McAlexander 1995), or brand com-
munity (Muniz and O’Guinn 2001) have a general consensus
as to the public meaning of an object or symbol in specific
settings (Belk and Costa 1998; Celsi, Rose, and Leigh 1993;
Kozinets 2001). These meanings are dynamic, but in each
moment they provide a shorthand that any member of the
social group can decode with intragroup agreement (Clifford
1985). When using objects to communicate self in personal
Web space, the wider context may influence the presenter
to consider the objects chosen for display more carefully.
Further, the opportunity to receive feedback, both anony-
mous and not, may influence the Web site creator’s choice
of communication tools.
Although current consumer research assumes that the pos-
session is the direct physical translation of abstract identity,
Kleine and Kernan (1991, p. 311) state that “the literature
provides little insight into how consumers ascribe meaning”
to objects or “what the meaning is” (emphasis added). Belk
(1988) terms this nebulous meaning “ascription self-exten-
sion,” and we expand it here to digital self-presentation in
personal Web space.
As characterized by the literature, possessions and prox-
imal objects are tools for self-presentation and their use
requires physical presence. Theories of CMEs find that em-
bodiment roughly and incompletely translates into the digital
realm. Unlike prior theories in consumer research where the
body is extended through material acquisition, or is the cen-
ter of consumption as a cultural construction (Thompson
and Hirschman 1995), the body in CMEs is not the locus
of consumption. Instead, initial theories of CMEs focused
on the potential of digital environments to free cyber par-
ticipants from their corporeal selves and the confines of their
material worlds, allowing for new designations of gender,
physical forms (human, animal, cyborg, hybrids), and un-
limited symbolic associations (Haraway 1991, 1997). In es-
sence, social presence need not equal physical presence
(Gardner, Martinko, and Van Eck Peluchette 1996). Social
presence in the absence of physical presence is known as
telepresence (Minsky 1980). The digital is a unique arena
in which the semiotic rules. The material is only voluntarily
referenced and, in some cases, nearly irrelevant. Other than
the access technology, the digital realm exists on a digital,
semiotic plane. Because physical presence is not required,
self-presentation strategies are expected to differ from those
in RL.
We examine relationships between consumers, consump-
tion objects, and symbols to explore how the Web site venue
challenges current theories premised on bodily enactment,
material acquisition, and physical proximity. By introducing
a digital environment into self-presentation theories, we re-
duce the primacy of physical possession and consumers’
dependence on conspicuous physical performance to study
SELF-PRESENTATION IN PERSONAL WEB SPACE
a freer form of self-presentation. Thus, we are able to tap
into consumers’ deeper attachments to products, brands, and
commercial entities. We assume that within each person
exists the potential for multiple, situational selves or what
is sometimes known as the postmodern self (Anderson
1997). The expansive arrays of devices available in the dig-
ital realm (Appadurai 1996; Marakes and Robey 1996) allow
consumers to construct simultaneous and nonlimiting selves
that are not required to be consistent with one another or
with material reality (Turkle 1995).
METHODOLOGY
The Data
Although the location of the phenomena, personal Web
sites, is within CMEs, part of this research is conducted in
RL to understand how self-presentation relates to the phys-
ical enactment of identity. As such, the data collection and
subsequent analysis of this data set are strategically diverse.
Three types of data are examined in this inquiry: personal
Web space content; face-to-face, semi-structured long in-
terviews with Web site owners; and electronic exchanges
with informants. The purpose of the content analysis of Web
sites was to identify ways in which consumers use personal
Web space to self-present. The interviews provided an un-
derstanding of how and why informants chose digital ma-
terial to display on their personal Web sites. Electronic ex-
changes with informants enabled us to clarify questions
arising during data analysis. The sum total of the data is
analogous to the recent brand community inquiry where
online and off-line data were accumulated, analyzed, and
presented to form a cohesive story of consumers’ partici-
pation in brand communities (Muniz and O’Guinn 2001).
Personal Web Space Sample. Three search engines
(Yahoo, Infoseek, Excite) were used to generate a sample
of personal Web sites. A combination of computer algo-
rithms and researcher judgment filters resulted in a set of
326 sites that were assumed to be owned by local potential
informants. Visual analysis of the personal Web space con-
tent was done in accordance with the reading of consumer
collages (Belk, Ger, and Askegaard 1997) and treated as
consumer-generated texts.
Informant Selection. Informant selection began with
the Web site set. First, every fifth Web site in the set was
called up, and, when possible, the owner’s e-mail address
was located. This process generated 16 informants who
agreed to participate in face-to-face interviews; a second
iteration resulted in seven more informants. The process
moved quite slowly. Subsequently, the initial set of iden-
tified Web sites was shown to the informants, asking them
if they knew any of the owners/creators. A snowballing
technique emerged, and eight more informants were in-
cluded. An additional four informants were not among the
original Web site set but were suggested by participating
informants. Table 1 describes the informants.
389
Personal Web Space Content. When informants were
successfully identified and interviews scheduled, we down-
loaded their personal Web sites, coded the content (text,
audio, image, icons, hyperlinks, and animation), and made
initial interpretations of these data. The personal Web sites
were not chosen for their inclusion of brand- or product-
related material. However, using Kotler’s (2000) expanded
notion of brands, all but three did contain brand references
at the initial interview (1999). The downloading and content
coding protocol were repeated annually on the informants’
sites (2000, 2001, and 2002). As of 2002, all informants
had at least one explicit reference to a brand on their personal
Web sites. The brands referenced range from common soft-
ware and net application endorsements (usually in reference
to the site creation, or listed as favorites) to entertainment/
entertainers (fan sites), clothing, financial/governmental/po-
litical organizations, and even household goods.
Interview Protocol. Interviews regarding self-presen-
tation strategies in personal Web space were conducted in
person by the first author. Initial interviews were done in
1999 and early 2000, lasted between 45 min and three hours
(with most around 90 min long), and used online resources.
Informants were asked questions about the purpose of their
Web sites, what the site communicates, their motivations
for constructing the sites, how they chose content, and so
forth, from a predetermined question set used for all inter-
views. Follow-up questions and discussions varied by in-
formant and analysis iterations (McCracken 1988b; Spradley
1979). During the interviews, a computer displayed the in-
formant’s Web site. The Web sites were used as elicitation
devices akin to Heisley and Levy’s (1991) notion of auto-
driving. The researcher also offered preliminary interpre-
tations of the Web site content to the informant. Informants
were encouraged to correct, augment, or otherwise interact
with this interpretation of their personal Web site content
(Belk, Sherry, and Wallendorf 1988).
Informants were encouraged to update the researchers on
the development of their personal Web sites. Similar in intent
and structure to Kozinets’s (2002b) use of Web postings in
his study of the Burning Man Festival, our interpretation of
the sites was updated and e-mailed to each informant annually.
In most cases, this communication resulted in an exchange
between researchers and informants about their personal sites
(content modifications to existing sites and new personal Web
sites authored by the informants). The electronic messages
were added to the data set for interpretation and as member
checks. Follow-up interviews in 2000, 2001, and 2002 were
conducted in person when possible or online when not. These
informant-researcher encounters clarified issues remaining
from the initial interviews, addressed emergent themes
through multiple revision efforts, explored the developing
Web sites and self-presentation strategies over time, and fur-
thered our understanding of individual informants.
Data Analysis
Long interviews, consumer-created documents (personal
Web sites and postings), and cocreated documents (elec-
390 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

TABLE 1

INFORMANTS

Identifier Sex Age No. of personal sites Site description

Sam M 59 2 Zinc recycling technology; genealogy

Jose M 24 2 Computer programming; Harley⫺Davidson
Fred M 28 2 Academic research; anime hobby
Anita F 26 1 Photography; graphic art
Dave M 32 2 Entertainment promoter; rock ‘n’ roll collector
Mark M 29 1 Dating/potential mate
Bob M 32 2 Web site design general; Tom Petty fan
Joyce F 24 1 Breast cancer awareness
Jack M 38 4 Software engineer; academic; religious; genealogy
Kim F 36 1 Social worker; craft hobbies
Kevin M 28 1 Business accomplishments
Monica F 29 1 Paralegal accomplishments
Tina F 28 1 Sales/hobbies and interests
Roger M 31 1 Accountant accomplishments
Daniel M 48 2 Course material/Aviation hobby
Tim M 30 4 Academic research
Tania F 27 1 Acting accomplishments
Cory M 25 2 Managerial accomplishments; rock ‘n’ roll fan
Rod M 32 1 Personal training accomplishments; dating
Amelia F 28 1 Computer science accomplishments/interests
Franklin M 23 1 Mechanical accomplishments; life history
Steve M 26 2 Musical accomplishments; life history
Ellie F 29 1 Journalistic accomplishments; life history
Larry M 36 1 Database accomplishments; music fan
Phillip M 25 1 Computer programming accomplishments
Angela F 30 1 Wedding information; family history and pictures
Seth M 37 2 Computer accomplishments; creative writing
Ben M 29 3 Academic research; dating; Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Nick M 23 2 Sales accomplishments; life history; dating
Sara F 28 2 Marketing accomplishments; life history; music fan
Don M 43 2 Xena fan; creative/journalistic accomplishments
Linda F 34 1 Family pictures; life history
Peter M 32 2 Accountant accomplishments; movie criticism
Jason M 27 1 Data analyst accomplishments
Greg M 36 2 Legal accomplishments; dating
Average 31 1.63
Male 24
Female 11
NOTE.—The age listed above is the age of the participant at the initial interview.

tronic exchanges) were analyzed for deep meanings. The
goal of the long interview forum is methodological empathy
(Singleton, Straits, and Straits 1993), and the unobtrusive
observation of personal Web space (Kozinets 1998, 2002a)
provides evidence of self-presentation in situ within CMEs.
The methodology employed was guided by the systematic
approach to qualitative research in Glaser and Strauss (1967),
elaborated by Strauss and Corbin (1998) as grounded theory.
It is perhaps better characterized by consumer researchers as
the constant comparative method of analysis (Spiggle 1994).
The interviews were coded, and themes were distilled. The
initial interview was analyzed separately and then reinter-
preted in a comparative manner. Subsequent interviews were
analyzed in light of previous interviews and performed in an
interactive, iterative style, sometimes labeled the hermeneutic
circle of understanding (Schwandt 1997). Triangulation of the
different data resources enriches the data set and increases
the emic potential of this inquiry. Using personal Web sites
as consumer-created digital collages to augment the inter-
views allowed informants to influence researcher interpreta-
tions. This triangulation brings the researcher a step closer to
perceiving the signs consumers offer in the manner in which
the consumers themselves do (Grayson 1998). By interacting
with and observing informants across online and off-line sit-
uations, we hope to interpret their self-presentation strategies
in personal Web space more fully.
FINDINGS
Data analysis reveals motivations for creating personal
Web sites that change over time. Consumers use multiple
self-presentation strategies to construct digital collages that
represent the self. As one aspect of self is explored (e.g.,
professional, hobbyist), consumers are often motivated to
use the medium to explore and display other selves. Further,
as consumers’ technological skills become more advanced
SELF-PRESENTATION IN PERSONAL WEB SPACE
and as they are exposed to others’ Web site content and
feedback from observers, consumers are motivated to con-
tinuously improve their Web site content. Figure 2 represents
our findings.
Why Consumers Create Personal Web Sites
There are likely to be as many motivations as there are
people who create personal Web sites. However, they all
intend to communicate, and some broad patterns of initial
impetus appear among our informants.
Communicative Intent. Unlike other consumer-ori-
ented experiences, some of which may take place in rather
private domains (bathrooms, bedrooms) or are only wit-
nessed by people in the vicinity of the consumer, the con-
struction and posting of a personal Web site is always a
communicative, public endeavor. Personal Web sites are per-
sonal in that they present the self, but they are public in
that they are posted in a broadly accessible domain. Our
data reveal that all informants explicitly invite and overtly
expect other Web surfers to visit. Some informants target
specific audiences (friends, family, potential employers).
Others hope anyone with overlapping interests will visit their
Web sites. All informants in our study acknowledge the
potential for the audience to be unlimited and undefined.
Dave, a 32-year-old entertainment promoter, created a per-
sonal Web site with a mass audience in mind. He confesses:
FIGURE 2
CONSTRUCTING PERSONAL WEB SITES
391
“I was impressed by the loudspeaker when I was in high
school. The principal’s voice was everywhere talking to
everyone. Right in everyone’s face. I had dreams of taking
over the PA system. Imposing my will on the masses. Maybe
that’s why I got involved in my college radio station and then
the entertainment biz—so my voice could be everywhere.
Well, my site is like that . . . it’s here and with just a click
everywhere. Whoa, I wonder if my old principal has a Web
site.”
Dave enjoys the broadcast ability of the Net for its quan-
tity of social influence. Through his Web site, he projects
a social presence into the intimate space of the screen and
then in everyone’s face. He has achieved an explicit inten-
tion to broadcast his telepresence everywhere like his prin-
cipal’s voice over the loudspeaker.
Similarly, Steve, a 26-year-old musician, values the public
self-presentation that personal Web space offers. He actively
monitors his site’s reach, keeping track of Web site visitors.
He checks on his site’s placement in search engine requests
and tracks other consumers’ references to his Web site, or
crosslinks. He admits “I can’t be everywhere, but my page
can. I post it, I cross link it, check where I am on the search
engines. I want to be everywhere. I got to be everywhere
‘cuz you never know where you have to be to catch that
break, or when. I can’t miss that.” A public Web site te-
lepresence increases his odds of being in the right place at
the right time.
392
Likewise, Franklin, a 23-year-old mechanic, recognizes
that the Web site he created for a class assignment is a
conspicuous self-presentation “in front of the class . . . and
I guess the whole Web . . . and shit, the world.” Ultimately,
he decided he wanted to make a publicly posted, personal
Web site to locate employment opportunities by electroni-
cally circulating his resume. He also hopes his friends think
it is “pretty fly” (a slang term with hip-hop origins that is
similar to “cool”).
Although the communicative intent of creating and post-
ing a personal Web site crossed all informants, a few noted
the danger that public self-presentation poses. Linda, a 34-
year-old IT consultant, posts a site containing pictures and
a personal journal of her children’s development to “keep
relatives and friends in the loop.” Linda intends and expects
the site to be seen by a prescribed set of people, whom she
e-mails when new content is added, but she also worries
about the public exposure her site may generate for her
children: “I don’t ever link the site to any traceable place
[cities, family, employers] or even have their last name listed
on the site itself because you never know who is looking
on.” She shows that with publicly posted personal Web sites
comes responsibility.
Although communication is the universal intent behind
the construction and posting of personal Web sites in our
data set, the specific initial motivators vary. These moti-
vations coincide with important events in consumers’ lives,
such as a change in role or a desire to express a particular
viewpoint. Given the inherently self-presenting nature of
personal Web sites, understanding the motives for con-
structing them provides insight to more general motives for
self-presentation.
Initial Impetus. Three distinct types of initial motiva-
tions emerge for a personal Web site: (1) a triggering event,
(2) a desire for personal growth, and (3) advocacy. These
categories emerge from the data set without noticeable dif-
ferences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
A triggering event may be defined as a significant change
in personal or professional status (graduation, promotion,
engagement, marriage, parenthood), or an external prompt
(class assignment, administrative mandate, social prodding).
For Angela, a 30-year-old Persian accountant, her wedding
was the impetus to create a personal Web site. A change in
status (e.g., from single to married) is also a change in self.
Such a change may be more apparent when it is significant,
such as marrying outside one’s culture. In Franklin’s case,
creating and posting a personal Web site was brought about
by an external prompt. As part of his community college
curriculum, Franklin was asked to create a personal Web
site.
A desire for personal growth may be an educational en-
deavor (mastering of a technology, adroit use of software),
professional and personal self-promotion (search for a job,
win clients, find a date/mate), an exercise in self-discovery,
or a fulfillment of a fantasy. Jose, a 24-year-old computer
programmer, decided to create a site to show off his pro-
gramming skills. His site is dedicated to attracting freelance
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programming work and promoting his family’s motorcycle
restoration business. Mark, a 29-year-old architect, utilizes
his Web space to locate a potential mate. He claims that the
site is “more than a chronic booty call,” it is “a serious
dating advertisement.” The site refers textually to his at-
tributes (i.e., hard working, determined, sincere), the char-
acteristics he is most compatible with (i.e., affectionate, en-
ergetic, and loyal), and the relationship outcome he terms
“the optimal deal” (i.e., monogamy and marriage). Sara, a
28-year-old marketing executive, maintains a site that ex-
plores her personal experiences and her musical tastes. Sara
describes her impetus as “to learn more about myself.” As
mentioned earlier, Dave’s site is partly the fulfillment of his
fantasy to take over his high school PA system.
Advocacy may lead someone to construct an homage to
a favorite artist, artistic work or genre, brand, or social cause.
Many Web sites contain elements of fanaticism and make
positive associations with various brands, like that of Bob,
a 32-year-old Web site designer. His personal site is devoted
to the musician Tom Petty. Although classified by his In-
ternet provider as personal, it is more a cyber homage to
Tom Petty and his band the Heartbreakers and the music
that inspired them (e.g., Elvis Presley). Bob posts biograph-
ical photos of and information on Petty, his family, his band,
and his inspirations with download-ready music from Petty’s
public work, pirated concert footage, and bootleg record-
ings. Bob’s site provides updated tour information and Tom
Petty’s public appearance schedule. He claims the site is
“all about Tom and his music” yet is still highly personal.
Bob feels the ideals expressed by Tom Petty are extremely
self-relevant: “His music is more me than anything [original]
I can post.” There is no disclosure of Bob’s RL identity
anywhere on the site other than his e-mail address and a
stylized avatar (a pictorial representation) that loosely refers
to his Native American ethnicity. Like Bob, Don, a 43-year-
old fan of Xena:Warrior Princess posts a site devoted to
the television show and cast, specifically Lucy Lawless, the
actress who portrayed Xena. Don posts pictures from the
show and the Xena conventions that he and/or friends have
attended.
Greg, a 36-year-old lawyer, maintains a site devoted to a
social cause. The site is devoted to Greg’s legal accom-
plishments that coincide with highly critical content re-
garding U.S. immigration law and policy. Greg’s personal
Web site is a focused argument against the U.S. treatment
of immigrants and what Greg feels is an unconstitutional
denial of civil liberties to those seeking asylum and citi-
zenship. After September 11, 2001, this site takes on an
even stronger resemblance to a hate site in its anger against
the current practices of “unlawful detention,” and “systemic
abuse” of “innocent people seeking the promise of democ-
racy in the USA” (exerpts from Greg’s Web site, 2002).
Greg calls his site a “STOP HATE, informational resource.”
Multiple and Evolving Motivations. Among our in-
formants it was not uncommon to find one initial impetus
and additional motivations for continuing to develop the
personal Web site. This shifting of motivations and purpose
SELF-PRESENTATION IN PERSONAL WEB SPACE
was seen among our informants across the four years we
have followed the Web sites and may be analogous to the
evolving motivation that Celsi, Rose, and Leigh (1993)
found among skydivers. Here, the initial impetus yields to
more involving purposes, and the Web site develops into a
self-presentation project far beyond what the informants en-
visioned at the beginning. For example, initially, Franklin
did not “see the point” of creating such a site, but his new-
found interest in computers led him to become very involved
in learning HTML and in developing his personal Web site:
“The whole idea of making myself from scratch was kinda
cool and a bit trippy. Given everything you could say and
show, what do I choose? Damn. I had to ask myself ‘Who
the hell am I?’. . . It was hard.” Franklin’s first motivation
was a triggering external prompt, the class assignment, but
through the construction phase, the motivation became a
journey of self-discovery to answer the question “Who the
hell am I?”
Steve, like Franklin, found his motivation extending be-
yond the initial impetus. Steve began the site for the specific
self-fulfillment of increasing his professional fan base. It
was an endeavor to broaden his market and achieve financial
success. The site later became much more personal: “To
create the site was like therapy with a bigger purpose—who
am I? Sure. But, how do I tell them?—the them that only
or first see my Web site. To them all I am is what’s on my
home page. Talk about pressure. You never get a second
chance to make a first impression. I agonize over the Web
site because it is my first impression to most people.”
As an artist Steve is conscious of self-projection, and as
a struggling musician he notes the more practical goal of
earning a living off his music. He knows he must maintain
a satisfied patron group or, in the marketing terms that he
wields easily, “Every musician needs a devoted fan base to
buy the recordings and take in the live shows.” As a man,
the site was a larger self-discovery project, allowing him to
ask “Who am I?”
This theme crossed several informants, including Ellie, a
29-year-old journalist working for a prominent regional
newspaper. She began her site to showcase her published
pieces and tout her success in the hope of bringing more
career opportunities. This initial motivation gave way to the
highly personal recounting of her life history and, through
her digital associations, became a way to work through long-
standing issues with her mother (see the Digital Association
section).
In addition to this shift in focus to include other aspects
of the self, the data show that informants also created en-
tirely new sites that were sometimes, but not always, linked
to the initial site. In these cases, the first motivation held as
the guiding principle for the site; however, subsequent sites
manifested the motivation to explore other selves. For ex-
ample, Sam began with a site revolving around his profes-
sion as a recycling engineer, but, as self-discovery took over,
he opted to create another site about his genealogy linked
to his professional one. The second site became a passionate
interest to identify and learn about his ancestors.
393
This multisite construction and maintenance is also dem-
onstrated by Jack, a 38-year-old software engineer and ac-
ademic, whose initial personal site was designed for pro-
fessional self-promotion. He chose to create other personal
sites for his self-discovery journey: one on genealogy; one
devoted to his immediate family, with pictures of his child;
and another to promote his church and its doctrine. These
sites are discrete and are not interlinked. All are personal
and demonstrate components of self-presentation divided by
his roles.
Other motivations arise as consumers increase their un-
derstanding of technology and the Web’s capabilities. Con-
sumers often want to display their talents by upgrading their
sites. By observing other personal Web sites and by receiv-
ing feedback on their own sites, consumers are motivated
to improve their presentation. Most of the informants ad-
mitted that they visited both commercial and personal sites
for ideas and digital content to appropriate. Philip, a 25-
year-old programmer, admitted he was strongly influenced
by another informant’s Web site, specifically, Jose’s ani-
mated creations: “When I was trying to figure out what to
put on my site and how to create a site that got clients’
attention and showed them I can develop killer sites, I
checked out the local competition. I landed on Jose’s site
several times and it gave me the idea to really push my
creative limits. I decided to post my past creations with some
endorsements from my past projects and even to program
a few animated sequences just for the site. I didn’t actually
meet Jose until we worked together in 1999.”
Philip was inspired by Jose’s site to create more than a
resume but, rather, an interactive gallery of his work. Larry,
a 36-year-old database specialist, posts an employment-ori-
ented site and a site devoted to his favorite rock music. At
first the two sites were linked, but Larry soon discovered that
it would be in his best interest to separate the sites. He received
e-mail and off-line feedback about the site that strongly in-
dicated that his music site might negatively affect his job
opportunities: “I am a sucker for all those old heavy metal
bands. I grew up with them and they rock. Of course, when
you make your life being a tech expert, people think you
have to be young, you have to be hip, you have to be edgy.
Well, a KISS Web site doesn’t cut it. People told me, ‘Dude,
your site is so 8-track, so old hoo-yaw [a derogatory term
for heavy metal music fans].’ I’m not one to cave, but I’m
practical enough to know I might want to keep my music
preferences away from my work.” Larry disentangled his sites
based on the feedback he received. He even changed his
screen name on the KISS fan site he posts to so that his
identity cannot be discovered easily.
In summary, we find that informants intend to commu-
nicate with others and that initial motivations include ex-
ternal prompts, personal growth, and advocacy. We discover
that such motivations evolve over time and migrate toward
complexity. The next section addresses the subject matter
communicated.
394
What Consumers Want to Communicate
Overwhelmingly, consumers want to convey the self or
multiple selves in their personal Web space. As demon-
strated in the last section, informants were conscious of
creating and displaying themselves online through such
sites. Across initial motivations, informants consistently
state that their sites enact selves with which they choose to
communicate with other Web participants. The content of
the sites is diverse (text, audio, image, icons, hyperlinks,
and animation) as is the style of communication, but the
desire to present a physically absent self to others underlies
all personal Web sites in our data set. This self may relate
to one or more roles played by an informant (journalist,
mother, daughter) or to a latent self (warrior, hero, intellec-
tual), but the desire to construct a self is a common theme
in these data.
Fred, a 28-year-old sociology doctoral student, maintains
a personal site primarily to communicate his academic in-
terests and accomplishments to potential employers and col-
leagues: “The site is me. It is the me I want to communicate;
the me I am most proud of.” His site consists of one self-
picture, his vita, abstracts of his academic articles, and in-
formation about his works-in-progress. For Fred, the site
presents an idealized self, digitally created and enhanced.
Fred constructs a telepresence to be virtually present re-
gardless of where he is; the site is “a me to be here wherever
I may actually be.”
Similarly Roger, a 31-year-old accountant, is eager to jus-
tify the time that he spends on the site and compiling its
circulation statistics: “People told me, well mostly my girl-
friend, that I was wasting too much time on this page. Wasting
time? Can you believe that? I’m not wasting time; I’m making
me . . . or at least the me that goes public.” For Roger, the
Web site has become the process of self-creation, and this is
no trivial pursuit. The self he makes is career oriented and
always looking for a better opportunity. He is meticulous
about the keywords he uses, the number of times he uses
them, the placement of keywords, and the optimal metatag,
in hopes of triggering high-ranking scores across various
search algorithms.
Given all the content our informants could post in public
domains, we find it interesting that personal Web sites live
up to their name: highly personal presentations of self. Our
informants exemplify a common theme of self-creation and
self-presentation. The Web sites are digital enactments of
self, intended for the Web surfing public. Each self is unique,
but the concept of communicating self crosses all inform-
ants. The following section details strategies used for that
communication.
Self-Presentation Strategies in Personal Web
Space
The creation of a self for public consumption is a major
task. The data reveal four strategies involved in digital self-
presentation in this personal site format: (1) constructing a
digital self, (2) projecting a digital likeness, (3) digitally
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
associating as a new form of possession, and (4) reorgan-
izing linear narrative structures.
Constructing a Digital Self. Computer-mediated en-
vironments have been shown to be inherently communi-
cative (Kozinets 1998, 2002a), a finding our data support.
Consumers construct and post personal Web sites as a form
of conspicuous self-presentation where every element is
chosen for its semiotic potential. These sites vary in com-
plexity and approaches, but across informants, we find con-
structing the digital self as a telepresence to be universal.
Mark’s dating site is replete with obvious marketing tac-
tics. The presentation of self is consciously sales oriented:
“I’m selling myself. We all do it. I’m just more open about
it.” He believes his “straightforward, no frills” approach
“weeds out the undesirables and the lookie-loos [those who
don’t intend to ‘buy’].” Mark admits that his site is
“comical” but also “quite serious.” He has created what he
believes is his most attractive, datable self-presentation with-
out physical form.
Unlike Mark, Franklin was anxious about constructing
his telepresence and displaying himself to the class, the Web-
surfing public, and even himself. This type of self-explo-
ration and disclosure did not come easily. Franklin incor-
porated content of other personal Web sites into his own.
Franklin’s sampling strategy was purposive and consisted
of trial and error as he evaluated potential site content. This
sampling behavior is analogous to the concept Turkle (1995)
borrows from Lévi-Strauss termed “bricolage.” In this way,
Franklin consciously drafted a digital self, including what
he felt were his best attributes and ignoring or even con-
cealing elements he deemed undesirable. For example, he
highlighted his mechanical training and chose not to mention
that he opted for the General Educational Development
(GED) credential, not a high school diploma: “I figure the
GED is my business. It’s what I did afterward that matters
to anyone else.”
Using a simple template provided by Angelfire (an ISP
that distributes personal Web space), Franklin “played with
the content,” manipulating his original and appropriated el-
ements until “it just seemed right” and was “most me.” Each
piece was purposefully chosen to match his objectives that
are both professional and social. The elements used on his
Web site express what he feels are desirable, intangible as-
pects of his identity. The configuration of the brands and
institutions in the form of digital stimuli are uniquely his.
Unlike Franklin’s site, Jose’s highly complex site contains
up to four frames per page, feedback forms, pop-up win-
dows, nearly 100 live hyperlinks, animation, video, and
sound bits. The first page consists of a textual biography of
his technical expertise, including pictures of him in various
stages and culminating in his hypertext resume. During the
interview, it was apparent that his vocation is also his pas-
sion; Jose’s descriptions of elements on his Web site came
replete with wild hand gestures, nonverbal utterances, and
obvious excitement (field notes, 1999).
One image on Jose’s site is of a Harley-Davidson mo-
torcycle in profile with animation on the handlebars that
SELF-PRESENTATION IN PERSONAL WEB SPACE
allows the site visitor to rev the engine, activating a sound
bit when the handlebar is clicked. The image is technolog-
ically complex, and Jose says it is based on “a hog my dad
used to have that took just about four years for him to
restore. One fine machine.” The sound matches perfectly
the motion of the handlebars and the entire motorcycle rocks
as the engine is revved. Each time Jose refers to his animated
hog, he makes the motions of revving a motorcycle engine
with his right hand (field notes, 1999). In the initial inter-
view, Jose claimed that he would soon have some pirated
technology that, coupled with a touch screen, would also
allow visitors to feel the motion of the bike. With exuber-
ance, Jose described that first incarnation of the handlebar
action as “approaching It [a term he uses to connote per-
fection],” but he assures the first author that the next round
will be “perfectly sweet [exactly right].”
It is clear from speaking with Jose that the site is a con-
spicuous presentation of self with deep meaning. With each
incarnation of the animated hog, Jose is more pleased with
the effect and its appropriation by other site authors. As of
2002, Jose had the touch screen in sync with the motion,
and the sound waves do give the illusion of movement on
the fingertips; the effect and his cult fame for creating it
grow daily. Jose says, “The hog is me these days. It is me
and my dad and my uncles . . . it is for some people all
they know about me and I’m cool with that ‘cuz it sums
me up.” Jose knows many of the people who see his site
will never meet him face-to-face, but he wants them to get
an impression similar to his RL presence and his RL family.
Angela has lovingly constructed her digital telepresence
so that friends and family who are geographically remote
can “really connect with me.” While she explains her Web
site, her demeanor is quiet, perhaps even reverent (field
notes, 2000). She originally started the project to keep dis-
tant relatives apprised of her wedding plans. She says, “We
don’t see a lot of our relatives in Persia, and I don’t want
to lose contact with them for my children’s sake.” Angela
carefully chose the elements on her site from the photos and
text to the images she appropriated from other sources. She
is sensitive to observers’ reactions to her site content and
especially concerned that it will be favorably interpreted by
“older generations and people still in the traditional culture”;
she does not want to offend them with her site. Angela
claims that her self-presentation is carefully crafted and that
every element was painstakingly decoded:
I made an outline of what I wanted to convey on the site and
the possible content . . . the pictures, narrative, and stuff I
got from the Web. Then I thought about the connotations
associated with each piece. I was meticulous. I’m an ac-
countant, you know. My fear is that I will offend our [her
Persian] relatives. I don’t speak the language much, and I
would never feel comfortable writing in anything but English,
so the images need to say a lot on their own.
Angela scrutinized her array of self-presentation tools for
any imagined impropriety or incongruence with her culture
395
and values. For example, the wedding photographer, who
is listed by name, had to be Persian:
I needed a photographer familiar with Persian weddings and
customs. The wedding had to be photographed just right so
my relatives far away knew I was faithful in our customs.
And it helps [that] his [photographer’s] family name is
traditional.
Ironically, the groom Angela chose did not meet this con-
straint; he is an American of German descent. It appears
Angela’s self-presentation strategy vehemently asserts her
faithfulness to Persian culture partly because her mate is not
Persian: “My husband was not what they [her relatives]
expected, so I had to set their minds at ease that I’m the
same Persian girl.” Familial approval is extremely important
to Angela. She chose digital elements that best matched her
identity as a hard-working traditional young woman, strad-
dling the cultural borders of Iran and the United States, while
embarking on married life with a German-American. Amer-
ica and its media (the Internet) are suspect to her Persian
family. Angela confesses:
A lot of my family, the older generations, are suspect of the
Internet. They hear all the bad things that are out there and
the smut, and they aren’t sure a young woman ought to be
in that environment. I want my site to show them the positive
potential and the way we can use it to keep the family close.
It is important to me. . . . One of my great aunts visited my
site from a friend’s house, and it was the first time she had
been on the Net. She called me while she was online and
said my mom looked as beautiful as she remembered. I think
she saw the potential for being a closer family.
As with Jose’s pride at the popularity of his animated
hog, Angela is pleased with her audience’s response. The
great aunt’s comment about her mother made Angela con-
fident that she could win support for the Web.
Although strategically different, informants in this sample
demonstrate the translation of self into the digital domain.
This process is shared by all informants and consists of
constructing digital selves by evaluating original and ap-
propriated elements and constructing a collage to stand in
for a physically absent self.
Projecting a Digital Likeness. Projecting a digital like-
ness is the explicit referencing of a physical body (RL or
ideal) in the construction of a digital self. Two differences
between constructing a digital self and projecting a digital
likeness are (1) the general intent and (2) the relationship of
the physical body to the process. Creating a specific tele-
presence, a digital self, means imparting a social presence
whether it relates to the body or the intangible self-concept.
All personal Web sites represent a highly contrived digital
self, but not all relate that self to the physical being. Con-
sumers reveal the importance of their bodies in how they
reference their physical beings within their communication
of self.
396
One strategy for digitizing a likeness is to reference the
RL body directly through pictures and textual descriptions.
For example, Franklin decided he needed a self-picture on
his site. He took a recent photograph of himself to Kinko’s
to scan, adding that image to his site. He feels the self-
picture most closely represents him, or, as he says, “how
most people see me.” It is a snapshot that the researcher
notes in her field notes has a very strong likeness to him.
He is standing on the boardwalk in Newport Beach, CA; it
is closely cropped with very little geographical context left.
The photo choice is not arbitrary but, rather, Franklin con-
fides, an image taken on the day he met his wife:
My buddy, Mel, took it last summer. He was so whacked [a
slang term for intoxicated], poppin’ these pictures left and
right with his new Canon. We were in Newport cruisin’ the
boardwalk trying to hook up with these hotties on skates.
We were grinnin’ like idiots and fallin’ all over ourselves to
impress ‘em. We did, man. Perfect luck. It is the day I got
Kelly’s number. That girl is so fine. Mine now. We’ve been
kickin’ it ever since. Ain’t that a trip?
Franklin’s digital likeness is carefully contrived to com-
municate his RL identity. The picture is a significant pho-
tographic moment of his physical life that is now digitally
recreated as an integral component of his telepresence. It
situates him within a geophysical space he calls home and
in relationship to a particular brand, Canon, that he believes
is “tough enough to keep up with me and my uses . . . like
documenting my life.” The photo depicts his physical like-
ness, his environment, his hobby (candid photography), and
his transitioning social status (from a single guy to a married
man). In the CME of personal Web space, where Franklin
could be anyone, he voluntarily projects his likeness to con-
struct his digital self.
Like Franklin, Mark is extremely concerned with the self-
portraits he posts on his personal Web site, except that Frank-
lin’s choice of picture reflects a significant moment (meeting
his wife), and Mark’s photos are chosen to inspire such a
moment (meeting his mate). Mark’s Web site in an online
dating community is dedicated to presenting him to potential
romantic partners through marketing tactics. Mark values
the power he has over his digital likeness. He spends hours
perfecting his pitch, choosing personal photographs, and
retouching them with software. It is a highly contrived pre-
sentation of self. Mark concedes,
I try to be accurate, but still, no one hangs their worst flaws
out raw. I highlight my better qualities and downplay the bad
things. Who would make a site that says, ‘I’m all jacked up
[a term indicating personal failings or pathologies], wanna
go out?’
His physical self is digitally airbrushed and polished.
Fred also posts a self-picture, but it is not significant; it
is just one more manipulated element that he uses to self-
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
present. When asked why that image was chosen, he says:
I don’t know. I guess I had it handy. I only want the picture
to augment the other stuff on my site and to make it easier
for people who see the site to find me in real life, like at
conferences. You know, sort of a business card with a picture
so the cocktail party conversation can be a little more
relevant.
His digital likeness directly serves his RL goals. For better
or worse, he accepts that his physical body is his primary
venue.
The site Joyce created is dedicated to her mother whom
she lost to breast cancer. It is fact-filled with links to medical
sites on breast cancer, as well as a touching narrative of her
mother’s struggles. It contains family photos, diary excerpts
from Joyce and her mother, and helpful tips for early di-
agnosis. Joyce says the site is more than cathartic, “It [con-
structing the site] was something I had to do. I needed to
communicate this story and expose the disease to bright
light. It’s my way of fighting back. Exposure is the key to
a cure.” In short, the site celebrates physical life and extends
her mother’s life into the ether. Joyce appears to be engaged
in a one-woman social marketing campaign. By making the
disease personal, she is likely to be more effective than any
organizational communication (Rosen 2000).
Another strategy for projecting a digital likeness is to
create a nonphotographic likeness. In our sample, even the
avatars used on the personal Web sites did not depart from
human forms generally and the owner’s specific physical
appearance. For example, Mark uses an avatar he created
with a photo-quality head shot on an animated body to fol-
low visitors as they explore his site. Similarly, Bob uses a
self-stylized avatar within the “Tom Petty Zone” (a chat
space housed on his Web site) that is a stereotypical, ani-
mated Indian boy complete with a feather in his headband.
This feature alone expresses his physical self as a man of
Native American ancestry. These avatars, like the photos,
are depictions that ground the Web sites with physical
references.
From self-photos to stylized animated avatars, many in-
formants in this study digitized their physical selves as part
of their self-presentation in personal Web space. Although
the use of these digital elements differed, the practice of
choosing images that visually represent their physical bodies
is common.
Digital Association. Although projecting a digital like-
ness refers to Web site creators’ efforts to reference their
physical bodies, digital association refers to efforts to ref-
erence relationships with objects, places, and so forth. Dig-
ital stimuli are appropriated or manipulated to convey mean-
ing. As in real life, where products are used as social stimuli
to construct and enact notions of self (Solomon 1983), con-
sumers call upon products and brands within personal Web
space. Through digital association, personal Web space of-
fers a new venue for consumers to create and enact con-
SELF-PRESENTATION IN PERSONAL WEB SPACE
sumer-brand relationships (Fournier 1998). People use such
digital stimuli to present themselves to an assumed audience,
constructing and managing impressions at whim with no
financial or physical constraints. Thus, consumers add depth
to their digital selves by using brands and their logos as
shorthand for more complex meanings. Interestingly, the site
creators also add depth to the brand’s own meaning and
identity, perhaps blurring the distinctions between produc-
tion and consumption at least for brand meaning (Firat and
Venkatesh 1995).
For example, Tina, a 28-year-old saleswoman, actively
invokes the meaning of Victoria’s Secret (that she describes
as a feminine, playful, still respectable sexuality) without
explicitly claiming any form of possession. Tina’s site con-
tains professionally produced boudoir photographs of herself
wearing lingerie that may or may not be Victoria’s Secret
and may or may not be borrowed for the sitting rather than
owned. A hyperlink to Victoria’s Secret appears on the page
near the photographs, although in the interview Tina could
not recall the brand of lingerie worn:
Interviewer: So these are pictures of you wearing Victoria’s
Secret lingerie?
Tina: Oh, I don’t know . . . not for sure.
Interviewer: Tell me about the Victoria’s Secret link. Why
do you include it?
Tina: Well, I link to Victoria’s Secret because it’s sexy. It’s
sexy and classy and how I want people to see me. Beautiful
girls in hot clothes . . . or almost clothes. You know, what
guys want to think you have under your street clothes.
Classy—not ghetto ‘ho’ [whore] wear.
She invokes the brand, absent of a claim to ownership,
to associate with its perceived meaning. A personal site like
Tina’s, with the Victoria’s Secret logo, product image, or
links to other related Web space including corporate sites,
demonstrates digital association. Tina is adding her own
conception of Victoria’s Secret by including her digital as-
sociation even without an authentic connection between her-
self and the actual product. To Tina, her association with
Victoria’s Secret is genuine regardless of whether she is
wearing their lingerie.
Kevin, a 28-year-old managing partner in an interior de-
sign firm, has a personal site that prominently features the
KitchenAid logo and hyperlink to the brand site. The
KitchenAid reference is loosely based on his pride in ren-
ovating his own kitchen with KitchenAid appliances and on
his success in using the brand in clients’ homes. He claims
the logo and link “communicate quality—like Toyota does
for cars.” It is also “practical, not artistic, or trendy.” Perhaps
most important, he uses the link to separate himself from
other designers and from more “effeminate aspects of in-
terior design” because he is sensitive to the “assumption that
anyone in my line of work is gay.” For Kevin, digitally
associating with KitchenAid positions him as less artistic
397
and, in his estimation, heterosexual, while conveying to ob-
servers that he is quality oriented.
Don’s Xena site and hyperlink participation in the Xena
fan community Web rings (personal sites hypertextually re-
lated to refer an interested observer from one topical site to
another) exemplify a digital association and demonstrate the
care taken to match the brand with the consumer’s identity.
In RL he is a mild-mannered professional, yet, when the
situation permits, he enacts his medieval warrior fantasy in
relation to Xena and the public meaning of her fan base.
Given the controversy in the Xena community on whether
Xena:Warrior Princess has a subtext lesbian love story re-
volving around the main character and her sidekick, the
lovely and omni-perky Gabrielle, Don’s Web site situates
himself within the debate. He acknowledges the possible
lesbian interpretation but readily cites the overt heterosexual
relationships between Xena and male characters and the
context of Xena as a single mother estranged from her son
due to her warrior life. To Don, those individuals who sub-
scribe to the lesbian subtext are diluting and possibly im-
pairing the public’s impression of Xena, which he believes
may affect any site visitor’s interpretation of his digital self.
He says,
They [subtext advocates] do damage to the reputation of Xena
as a family show with a high child and young adult following.
If the subtext interpretation becomes more prominent, I will
have some trouble openly sharing my involvement in the
Xena community. I mean, people can accept I’m a Xena fan
and a renaissance advocate/re-enactor, but the lesbian angle
pushes it over the edge.
Don is a Xena fan who does not want to deny the subtext,
but he is genuinely worried about his association with it.
His site walks the line between denying the unofficial com-
munity-driven subtext and asserting a more mainstream
meaning for Xena.
Similarly, Tim, a 30-year-old academic, is concerned
about the fit between his identity and observers’ interpre-
tation of the university domain that he shares. Tim believes
that there should be some accountability for the personal
Web site content hosted on the university resources because
it reflects on the Christian university’s reputation. He is
particularly disturbed by the content of other personal Web
sites whose digital association with the same university
could mar his professional reputation:
I’m appalled at the kinds of things students post on the uni-
versity resources. There are nude pictures, violent texts and
images, and considerable profanity. All of this reflects on the
university community. Every site influences how we as a
community are seen by the outside world. I’m not really
advocating censorship . . . they can put that stuff up else-
where, just not where it reflects on me and my
accomplishments.
Tim is worried that the student Web sites are going to dam-
398
age the public meaning of the university as a scholarly in-
stitution for Christians and, by extension, his own reputation
as a Christian.
The expression of Jose’s identity through the animated
Harley image of a bike his father has long since sold ex-
presses the meanings he invests in the brand and the lifestyle
it promotes:
Sure the bike shows my programming skills, but I could
animate anything. . . . I chose the Harley because it is all
about freedom and the open road. It’s all about the idea that
anything can happen in America and about power you con-
trol. It’s about my family and the way Latinos like me are
a part of the American landscape. It’s about putting some
color into the Harley image because it’s all there. Go to an
event some time. No Wonder Bread scene. It’s about friends
so close they feel like family. The Harley style is to keep it
real.
The fact that the Harley-Davidson Jose depicts is digital
and represents a machine his dad no longer possesses is not
relevant to Jose’s self-presentation. His digital association
to the material machine is not dependent on ownership,
possession, or proximity. Nor is it dependent on the cor-
porate image of Harley-Davidson, whose Web site features
only mainstream English language and primarily white men
in their photographs. In the authors’ interpretation, Harley-
Davidson supports the Wonder Bread image Jose is actively
challenging.
Angela is careful about the potential connotation of the
ISP she uses, “I don’t have an AOL e-mail or Web address.
Way too American. I use Earthlink because it sounds so
inclusive, and it fits with my goal of linking myself to my
traditions and to my life here in the U.S.” She exhibits
concern about what her chosen ISP says about her affiliative
identity. Angela constructs a digital self consistent with be-
ing a traditional, well-mannered, proper Persian girl and
casts Earthlink as an accomplice in de-Americanizing the
Web and her place in it. It is not relevant to her that Earthlink
is an American company with similar business practices to
AOL.
One brand Ellie includes on her Web site is Tupperware
(textual description and hyperlink to corporate Web site) to
represent her childhood, her mother, and the differences she
sees between her own generation and her mother’s. Here is
a textual excerpt from her Web site (2002):
My mom claims she was a working mother and that she
understands the pressures and demands of working outside
the home, maintaining a marriage, and raising children. She
has constant and persistent advice for me in my struggles to
balance family and work. The thing is, she was a married
Tupperware saleswoman, I am a professional journalist strug-
gling to make a name for myself and raise my daughter alone.
Tupperware can wait, anxious editors cannot. Tupperware is
a job, not an occupation. It is the manufacturer of domestic
tools, which women can peddle without getting their hands
dirty. It was a safe company for a woman to be in 30 years
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
ago; a respectable side job for a married woman. I exist in
a new millennium professional world where gender and par-
enthood must be discretely [and perhaps discreetly] handled.
My hands are always dirty.
Ellie tells her story with narrative and commercial ref-
erents. For Ellie, the choice of Tupperware as content for
her site was deliberate and oppositional. Tupperware is a
brand that represents her mother, but not Ellie. Tupperware
is intimately connected with her past, the generation gap,
and relationship issues with her mother today. Ellie’s hands
are dirty because she perceives her mother’s disapproval
and perhaps her own struggles with nostalgia for values of
30 years ago when motherhood was “a profession in its own
right” and “when marriages lasted forever.” For Ellie, Tup-
perware is nostalgia incarnate, and her complicated oppo-
sitional relationship to Tupperware often stands in for re-
lations with her mother. This important symbol for Ellie is
woven into her digital telepresence with precision. It is not
relevant to her that Tupperware makes no nostalgic claims
about traditional male-dominated, dual-parent families.
Digital association is a new form of possession not de-
pendent on ownership or proximity. In fact, as we see with
Ellie, digital possession can be enacted as oppositional. This
oppositional strategy is rare in RL because it is difficult to
call attention in the material world to those things you are
not using or buying. In RL, only close friends are privy to
avoided brands (see Vicki’s story in Fournier [1998]). Dig-
ital association demonstrates the interaction between cor-
porately influenced meanings and those meanings consum-
ers derive and perpetuate (Kates 1997). Consumers are
actively commingling brands and their images in the service
of self-presentation.
Reorganizing Linear Narrative Structures. Disman-
tling hierarchies of linear writing, hyperlinking allows re-
sumes and life stories to be told with detailed elaboration
only when the reader clicks the hyperlink. In essence, hy-
perlinks allow narratives that have no distinct beginning,
middle, or end but, rather, many modes of elaboration. This
tool significantly empowers the reader and provides digital
self-presentation to an audience with specific interest. The
format is also becoming popular as people keep online di-
aries and Web logs (blogs) and interlink their sites with other
sites to thoroughly negate prior assumptions about linear
narration.
Franklin, for example, walked the interviewer through the
meanings of all the images, text, and hyperlinks on his site.
Franklin talks about why he hyperlinks to his mechanics
school in Arizona, as opposed to creating a textual descrip-
tion. For him, “It [the school] was where I became a man
and knew what I wanted to do with my life.” It represents
his first experience away from home and his evolution from
an idle child to a career man. He adds, “Besides, it’s a damn
good school and somebody looking to hire me should know
I was trained there.” The school link has functionality be-
cause it allows site visitors to research Franklin’s back-
SELF-PRESENTATION IN PERSONAL WEB SPACE
ground and find evidence of his technical training if they
are so inclined.
Similarly, Jose’s site includes a hypertext resume. The
hyperlinks provide a way to drill down into the digital self
he has created, if a site visitor is interested, but it does not
force a long narrative upon the visitor. In essence, site vis-
itors can self-edit content they desire to explore in depth.
Jose hyperlinks to his father’s restoration business site, the
Harley-Davidson brand and rally sites, a few ethnic Web
sites, all past and present employers’ Web sites, and even
other sites he has created. Jose also finds that visitors add
his animated hog to their own self-presentations: “The an-
imated hog has really caught on, people link to it, and some
people slap it up on their own sites. Most give me credit,
but a few assholes don’t.” Its appropriation as an image or
hyperlink indicates Jose’s social influence or, loosely speak-
ing, popularity.
Ellie’s site consists of text with hyperlinks embedded in
the narration that lead the site visitor to elaborations re-
garding details of her life story, or as she terms it, her
“unique herstory.” The brands are cultural shorthand to con-
vey complicated meaning and to self-present. In addition to
the story Ellie tells, she hyperlinks to the Tupperware cor-
porate Web site. When asked why she chose to hyperlink
she says, “So people can see for themselves. Thirty years
later you can still see that Tupperware is not a professional
occupation; it’s a job for those who dabble at work.” For
Ellie, the hyperlink adds depth to her story and evidence
for her site visitors that Ellie’s mother had an entirely dif-
ferent social experience than Ellie lives.
Although not all informants use the hyperlinking tech-
nology, the data illustrate increased hyperlinking behavior
among our set of informants over the four years we have
followed their Web sites. For example, Monica, a 29-year-
old paralegal, began her site in 1999, mentioning in its text
content the firm where she works. In late 2000, she placed
a few hyperlinked logos of her employer, firms that are
related to her sport passion (surfing), and favorite recording
artists. By 2002, Monica has a site that features in-text hy-
perlinks, more elaborately detailed self-created pages, links
to corporate sites in text, and a host of hyperlinked logos
embedded in the text. She attributes this increased sophis-
tication to her “familiarity with the medium and technol-
ogy.” As these personal Web site creators continuously im-
prove their sites, they become more technologically savvy
and more apt to employ nonlinear structures in their self-
presentations.
DISCUSSION
The findings address motivations, intentions, and strate-
gies used in constructing personal Web space. We show that
the creating and subsequent posting of personal Web sites
is a form of conspicuous self-presentation that assumes ex-
ternal social observation. We find that the initial impetus
yields to more enduring and to multiple motivations over
time. The data reveal four strategies for achieving intended
self-presentations. Within these strategies, we find that con-
399
structing the digital self crosses all informants as a project
of personal Web site posting. Because people may construct
digital selves referencing only the intangible self (ideas,
values), we illustrate that projecting a digital likeness is a
common, but nonessential, process of digital self-presen-
tation. We reveal that, in the most recently reviewed versions
of the sampled sites (2002), all contained at least one explicit
association with an object, brand, institution, or commercial
enterprise, making digital association an extremely popular
tool in digital self-presentation. Finally, we discover that
consumers pursue a widespread reorganization of linear
structures allowed by hyperlinking technology.
Initial and Evolving Motivations for Personal Web
Space Construction
We find that the reasons consumers self-present in personal
Web space are similar to the reasons that they self-present
off-line in many respects. In both RL and personal Web space,
consumers desire to communicate constructed selves (Dittmar
and Pepper 1992; Goffman 1959; Wiley 1994). Our findings
show that personal Web space, a very conspicuous form of
self-presentation, offers a new venue for consumers to enact
brand relationships (Fournier 1998). In RL, a change in role
can motivate a consumer to consider consciously the image
communicated through associations with products and groups
(Arnould and Price 2000). The new graduate looking for a
real job suddenly becomes concerned about his or her ap-
pearance and what it communicates to potential employers.
In the CME world, a role change may prompt a consumer to
create a personal Web site; in turn, the act of creating a Web
site causes consumers to consider carefully who they are be-
fore they post their digital possession portfolio.
Informants’ initial impetus for Web site creation was
found to be self-conscious and intentional. Although con-
sumers may consider image when selecting products to pur-
chase, often these considerations are subsumed under some
rationale about the product’s quality or some other attribute.
Because digital associations offer no use value to consumers
creating personal sites, the brands’ symbolic values are ex-
plicitly and consciously considered before consumers com-
municate with the online world.
Consumers are increasingly seeking the opinions of other
consumers beyond their physical social network (Kozinets
1998, 1999, 2002b). They choose products and services,
using endorsements and critiques on corporate sites like Am-
azon or within personal Web space (Weiss 2001). In contrast
to established one-way mass media (television and radio),
in CMEs consumers’ individual voices are present. By jux-
taposition, framing (Ritson 1996), arrangements of verbal
text, and other visuals, their revealed identity can have a
more visible impact on the evolution of product and brand
meaning. When consumers practice impression management
(Goffman 1959), observers interpret such self-presentations,
whether in traditional media or CMEs. However, a key dif-
ference in these venues is the variety in the audience. Off-
line, people are limited to interpreting proximal self-pre-
400
sentation, but online there is the potential for a distant
observer set. Anyone from anywhere may be watching and
listening and feeling the content of a personal Web site.
What Consumers Communicate
Our data demonstrate that personal Web space is a con-
sumer narrative where multiple selves are made compre-
hensible (Arnould and Price 2000). Telepresence, or pro-
jecting a social presence at a distance, has existed in other
forms, through letter writing and telephonic communication,
and, arguably, since early man’s cave drawings, but tele-
presence in CMEs is uniquely rich. It may include visual,
textual, audio, animated, and even haptic sensation. Spe-
cifically, this ability to present multiple selves simulta-
neously is almost inimitable in RL. Turkle (1996) shows
how the conflation of situational selves can result in multiple
selves—when the “me” and the “we” collide or when the
“me” is multiple “we.” Similarly, our informants demon-
strate the “multiple me’s” phenomenon; however, they did
not present entirely disjointed selves. The digital selves pro-
duced by our informants are relatively coterminous and cer-
tainly not inconsistent with their RL self. Our informants
thoughtfully considered what personal content to disclose.
Consistent with Moon (2000), our findings reveal that this
specific CME, personal Web space, is inherently conducive
to strategic self-disclosure at a distance. Furthermore, we
find that the RL physical self may not be the site of con-
sumption (Thompson and Hirschman 1995). However, it is
a significant portion of the self voluntarily disclosed on
personal Web sites.
Cyber theory about behavior on the Web has tended to
overrely on specific fantasy CMEs like MUDs or online
gaming rooms (Ito 1997; Turkle 1996) that separate Internet
experiences from RL (Haraway 1991, 1997; Wilbur 1997).
Notions developed in fantasy-driven spaces do not hold for
self-presentation in personal Web space (Cheung 2000). In
this study, consumers do not take on entirely new identities
but express aspects of their RL identities, anchored by their
RL existence. Our research reveals that consumers con-
sciously utilize Web sites to augment their face-to-face social
and professional encounters. They employ technology as a
prosthetic device to enhance RL or as an extension of the
physical self (Belk 1988). Personal Web sites are not a means
of transcending the body or “shedding the meat” (Gibson
1984).
Most of our informants are looking for RL employment,
RL mates, and solutions to RL problems. Informants want
to improve their material conditions, not take on fantasy
forms and personalities. Web site informants often include
or create a digital likeness in their attempts to self-present,
that is, a picture, physical description, or avatar related to
the owner’s physical self. As Thompson and Hirschman
(1995) found in examining consumers’ self-concept, body
images and consumption of personal care products, our in-
formants relied on the familiar narratives of the body despite
expanded possibilities. Interestingly, although Mick and
Fournier (1998) found that prior theories of technology are
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
overly reliant on belief in scientific progress, our findings
suggest that theories of CME overrely on postmodern the-
ories of emancipation from our physical selves. Although
we did find evidence of postmodern multiple selves, these
selves were anchored in the unitary physical body modern-
ists consider central to their theories (Bordo 1993).
Self-Presentation Strategies
As in consumption constellations (Solomon and Englis
1992), digital consumers place themselves in relation to
products and services on their Web sites, but there the en-
actment of consumption is digital, not physical. Because
brands are part of the popular imagination and the reality
of people’s lives, they convey meaning to Web site visitors.
As in RL, site creators use brands as a shorthand for de-
scribing to others who they are, as well as who they are
not.
Products, services, and brands in general have different
types of value (Kotler 2000). In RL a consumer can ex-
perience the use value as well as the symbolic value of brand
image. In personal Web space, most, if not all, of the truly
functional value is absent, save the software and access
technology. The overriding value is semiotic. For example,
in both venues, consumers can enjoy the symbolism of the
BMW brand, but only in RL can a consumer use it for
transport. Personal Web site creators link themselves to the
symbolic meanings and the public interpretations derived
from these symbols. Without direct financial cost, digital
consumers can activate a type of cobranding, commingling
brand logos, and creating relationships between brands.
In RL, association is limited; consumers often run up
against financial, space, or proximal limitations in associ-
ating themselves with brands. For example, consumers may
feel Gucci expresses their identities but be unable to own
Gucci items in RL. In personal Web space, consumers’ brand
associations are limited only by their imaginations and com-
puter skills. They can literally associate themselves with any
brand by digital appropriation and manipulation of digital
symbols. Interestingly, our informants demonstrate a har-
monious reliance on self-presentation strategies that in some
way reflect the material realm. Although the digital collages
the consumers create are ostensibly infinite, all informants
in this study produced Web space content that, to varying
degrees, reflects their current material reality. Occasionally,
informants recreated past possessions. Jose created a digital
Harley-Davidson motorcycle, replicating a hog his father
had owned. Mark included vinyl records on his Web site
that he had already sold on eBay. Although consumers may
include associations with products no longer owned, their
former possession in RL validates including those products
on their Web sites. Moreover, as in the consumer-brand re-
lationships Fournier (1998) discusses, it appears that our
informants are not merely associating with brands but are
perhaps enacting relationships with brands without the re-
strictions of possession and proximity.
Unlike self-extension (Belk 1988), self-presentation in
personal Web space includes negative, oppositional rela-
SELF-PRESENTATION IN PERSONAL WEB SPACE
tionships. In other words, extending the self means that the
RL self is conspicuously invested in a chosen set of pos-
sessions, while digital self-presentation requires only the
manipulation of digital stimuli, including associations op-
positionally self-relevant. What may be implicit in consum-
ers’ choice of brands over other brands not chosen can be
made explicit on consumers’ personal Web sites when
brands are included as “not me” (Kleine et al. 1995).
Our research demonstrates the importance of recognizing
that consumers can use symbols to invoke brand associations
and relationships in ways that previous work has not.
Through the process of digital association, consumers were
found to expand the concept of ownership. The possession
state invoked in a digital medium is different from physical
possession because it is manipulated, or symbolically re-
constituted, not acquired. Unlike the previous consumer re-
search premised on possession and proximity of physical
objects (Belk 1988; Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton
1981; Douglas and Isherwood 1979; Richins 1994a, 1994a;
Fournier 1998; Wallendorf and Arnould 1988), digital as-
sociation is semiotic and, at times, self-referential. It is based
on signification systems that do not require brand use, only
an eventual material referent (Gottdiener 1995). In sum-
mary, digital association blurs the distinctions among the
material, the immaterial, the real, and the possible. Personal
Web space appears to challenge the limitations of RL and
the theories that depend on these assumptions (see table 2).
Implications for Future Research
Personal Web space as a consumption-oriented phenom-
enon is booming. Where having a personal site in 1999
implied an above-average level of technological prowess,
today easy-to-use software makes building and posting a
personal site novice-proof. More people with increasingly
diverse backgrounds are engaging in creating personal Web
sites. This study of those Web sites demonstrates that con-
sumers use digital stimuli and hyperlinking technology to
TABLE 2
COMPARISON OF SELF-PRESENTATION STRATEGIC DIMENSIONS
Dimension
Consumers intend to communicate with others
Consumers desire to self-express
Self-presentation is inherently conscious and conspicuous
Self-presentation is bounded by geography
Self-expression is anchored by physical being
Consumers actively associate with brands
Brand may have use value
Brand has symbolic value
Consumers commingle brands
Financial constraints exist with brand association
Infinite means of self expression are found
Active oppositional brand associations exist
Observers interpret symbolic value
Diverse observers interpret consumption
NOTE.—RL p real life, face-to-face contexts; PW p personal Web space.
401
self-present. The most common corporate external links in
this sample are technology and entertainment oriented (mu-
sic, film/video, sports, and hobbies), but a wide variety of
products and brands are also referenced on personal sites
(e.g., vehicles, apparel, household goods). Future research
should examine what types of digital stimuli are used and
how they communicate brand associations and enact con-
sumer-brand relationships (Fournier 1998). This research
should yield insights into consumer relationships with less
conspicuously consumed products, enabling researchers to
understand consumer relationships with a fuller spectrum of
products. Positive associations and negative disassociations
should be compared to determine if there are broad strategic
differences in their deployment and influence. Based on our
research and consistent with the word-of-mouth literature
(e.g., Herr, Kardes, and Kim 1991), we expect researchers
to discover that Web site visitors place greater credence in
negative rather than positive associations.
Figure 2 suggests that personal Web sites have observers
who may provide feedback to the Web site creator. The in-
teractive nature of the medium enables the creation of online
communities (Kozinets 1999; Muniz and O’Guinn 2001).
These observers should be the focus of future research to
further our understanding of the other half of the dyad. We
expect such research to find discrepancies between what Web
site creators intend and how observers interpret Web site con-
tent. Such research may offer insights into how consumers
come to common understandings of brand meaning.
Further, researchers can identify ad hoc brand commu-
nities (Muniz and O’Guinn 2001) by using a social-ties
analysis akin to Brown and Reingen’s (1987), substituting
word-of-mouth for linking behavior. By following the Web
of links among personal Web sites, one can ascertain a sense
of community participants. This research will yield insights
into the role of word-of-mouth in diffusion of innovations
and will enable researchers to study the influence of ref-
erence groups in this process. Research into how and why
one consumer borrows from or links to another personal
RL PW Comparison
Y Y p
Y Y p
N Y (
Y N (
Y Y p
Y Y p
Y N (
Y Y p
Y Y p
Y N (
N Y (
N Y (
Y Y p
Sometimes Y (
402
Web site would provide insight into the phenomenon of viral
marketing (Rosen 2000); specifically, we would expect it to
show that consumers who are more centrally located in on-
line communities exhibit traditional opinion leadership
characteristics.
Personal Web space is a consumption-oriented phenom-
enon that is evolving with technology and increased dif-
fusion. As such, personal Web sites will continue to offer
a rich source of data for consumer researchers. Cyber home-
steads are replete with voluntary, overt brand associations
as consumers try to communicate with the online world.
Their Web sites also serve as an important form of self-
presentation where display of self is overt and there are no
financial constraints. To those visitors who land upon them,
the sites are surrogates for the individual who produced
them. In the world of personal Web space, we are what we
post.
[David Glen Mick served as editor and Eric J. Arnould
served as associate editor for this article.]
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