The social and communicative potential of social media in the context of personal brand development

Abstract

This study reveals the complex social and communicative potential of social media through the prism of the issue of building a personal brand. The social and sociocommunicative importance of this issue is determined by the following arguments: firstly, positioning and popularization of a person with online communication tools is a process of building a personal brand; secondly, a personal brand can have a tangible impact on the formation of the culture of a modern personality and society; and thirdly, the influence of personal brands on the mass consciousness is not limited to the standards of journalistic activity. The presented arguments fully demonstrate the relevance of the problem of understanding the essence of the social and communicative potential of social media in the context of building a personal brand (in particular, the personal brand of a journalist, politician, the company’s HR director, or any other media person). The author defines the phenomenological context of social media as online communication tools that can be used to successfully build a personal brand. Based on this, it is established that the sociocommunicative potential of social media in the appropriate context is determined by: their accessibility (first of all, for use in order to optimally position the person in the digital space); a wide audience that uses these online communication tools (today, web platforms actually unite a quarter of humanity); and the functionality of social media (in particular, the possibilities of self-presentation; the ability to create an information product in the web space that can influence Internet users, consolidating them around a person who is building a personal brand; extensive opportunities for Internet users to interact on an online resource). The conclusions summarize the results of the study.