Given how much communication occurs through social media, it’s essential to competently manage your online face. This can be especially challenging if your social media followers are a diverse mix of family, coworkers, friends, and perhaps even professors (Rui & Stefone, 2013). Keeping in mind the three Ps of mediated communication—powerful, public, and permanent—can help you do just that.²

² Personal communication with authors, May 13, 2008. This material was developed specifically for this text and published with permission of Dr. Malcolm Parks; it may not be reproduced without written consent of Dr. Parks and the authors.

Mediated communication is powerful in shaping others’ impressions of you. When you communicate with others through social media, they’re more likely to think that your communication reflects your “true” self than they would be if you communicated face-to-face (Shedletsky & Aitken, 2004). For example, if you e-mail a job application to a potential employer and don’t include a proper subject line, greeting, or message, they could conclude that you’re unprofessional.

Mediated communication is public. Always assume that the self you present to others through social media is going to be viewed by a much larger audience than you intended. E-mails, texts, tweets, photos, videos, comments, and status updates can be downloaded, saved, edited, copied, captured, and forwarded by recipients to others. Even if you have privacy settings enabled, there’s nothing stopping authorized friends from downloading posts and photos and distributing them to others.

Mediated communication is permanent. Blog posts, status updates, tweets, photos, and e-mails don’t “go away” when you send or delete them; they are saved by recipients and stored on servers and can be retrieved later. Assume that anything and everything you and others post about you online may still be available long into the future.

Keeping the three Ps of mediated communication in mind will help you create and maintain the online face you want others to see. Additionally, there are unique challenges for maintaining positive face when you communicate online in work groups—known as virtual teams—and when you deliver online presentations. Chapter 11 (Small Group Communication) considers specific skills for communicating in virtual teams, and Chapter 15 (Delivering Your Speech) addresses steps for making online presentations.