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when a user comes across your Twitter handle or Facebook feed, she doesn't suddenly transform into a "professional-only" mode that consumes, filters and reacts to content based 100% on her company and career. No, her professional persona may take center stage, but her entire thought process is also influenced by the less apparent parts of her personality: the fact that she's a parent, enjoys rock climbing, is coming off a rough week or lives in a city. As marketers, we need to embrace this fundamental nature of user behavior; namely, that people act, engage, and respond not solely as professionals, but as nuanced human beings.

If connection needs to take place at a human level, then our brands must also become human

Being a humanized brand means learning the art of authenticity. It means being genuine, being passionate about whatever it is your brand is and does. Just like in everyday life, people respond most to others who are perceptibly and consistently real. And that's why it's an art, not a formula. Authenticity, in the long run, can't be manufactured or faked.

“Why say you went to a party on a Friday night when you can say you volunteered at a soup kitchen? Why say you spent the weekend playing Xbox when you can talk about the new art opening at the museum?” said Brent Busboom, an English teacher at Reno High School and Northern Nevada’s 2007 Teacher of the Year. Reno High is one of the best public high schools in Nevada and many of its students go on to top-tier colleges.

Some contents of ideal-self profiles are legitimate. Others, however, are embellished or exaggerated. Students don’t see an ethical problem, Busboom said. It's just "admissions jiu jitsu."

Facebook is still popular enough that a college admissions official will raise a red flag if a kid claims he or she isn’t on Facebook. And the ideal-self profiles come in handy with certain scholarship sponsors, which have started requiring applicants to accept Facebook friend requests as part of the review process.

during the audience review (which is typically our first workshop session), we focus entirely on user personas and, critically, the context of the mobile interaction with a company’s intended end users. The goal here is to map out the type of user, mindset, location, and specific needs at the time they are interacting with or accessing the mobile content. It’s not enough to know just the demographics and some sample scenarios. We need to study the end user’s goals through all touchpoints that frame the context.